Straight Talk vs TracFone: Who Should You Go With?

Prepaid cell phone plans, the alternative to the postpaid world we live in. Prepaid also known as “pay as you go” is a contract-less method of payment where the customer will select exactly what they need from their phone plan, i.e. how many minutes, texts, gigabytes of data, etc, and then pay for that in advance so they are guaranteed exactly what they paid for. Prepaid cell phone plans are often cheaper and less “frilly” than their postpaid companion. 

Prepaid works better for people who don’t want to be tied down to any provider or plan, and don’t necessarily need the fancy bells and whistles that come with a postpaid plan like subscription services, extra storage, and a bunch of other perks. What’s great about a prepaid cell phone plan is the control is totally in the customers hands. 

There are a lot of prepaid cell phone plans from a number of great providers out there, but today we’re talking and comparing two that have been around for a while: Straight Talk vs TracFone. These two are both options many consider and we’re going to talk about their pros and cons so you can finally decide which one to sign up with. There’s a lot to cover, so let’s get started:

• Quick Overview: Straight Talk and TracFone
• What the Coverage Looks Like from Both Providers
• How the Plans Compare: From Price to Features
• The Verdict

Quick Overview: Straight Talk and TracFone

Before we take a look at what the coverage and phone plans look like from each provider, let’s first take a look into each provider and give you, the prospective customer, a general idea of what they are like as individual carriers.

-> Straight Talk Wireless

Straight Talk, or fully known as Straight Talk Wireless, first introduced themselves in 2009 when the rise in touch-screen cell phones was starting to reach its all-time high as the first iPhone was released just two years prior. Straight Talk Wireless is amongst the many providers that want to keep things straight-forward and simple. Nothing too confusing to follow but with enough plan options to cover all kinds of phone users. Phone users that are on their phone more often than not and phone users who only use their phone for exactly what it is for: a phone. 

Straight Talk Wireless is a MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) which is a term used to describe smaller cell phone carriers that don’t own their own cell towers and infrastructure. They instead piggyback off of a provider that does, and in Straight Talk’s case it is a bit of an anomaly amongst other MVNOs.

Typically you’ll find when you’re doing research on other MVNOs that they will only work with one provider, but with Straight Talk they work with multiple to provide coverage- but we will go over that in full detail next in our “Coverage” section.

Straight Talk Wireless is all about versatility, wanting you to get your pick of the plan you need and the payment process that best fits your income.

-> TracFone

If you’ve been around the cell phone world for a while then there is a very good chance you’ve heard the name “TracFone” before. TracFone, or fully named Tracfone Wireless, Inc. has been in the mobile game for over 25 years. They have been providing all kinds of plans for people since before touch-screen was even a thing. In fact there is a pretty good chance that you or someone you know has had a TracFone for personal or business use.

With TracFone, they take the meaning of choice seriously as you get to choose whether to bring your own phone or buy a new one, what plan fits your needs best, and price- which is giving the customer a freedom they might not find frequently when shopping around for different cell carriers. Since TracFone is a “pay as you go” provider they are upfront with you on how much you are spending before you spend it so you don’t have to worry about any nasty hidden fees. 

A REALLY Helpful Tip

Before you move on- one thing that’s good to note about MVNOs and all cell phone carriers is the words data deprioritization and throttling. Data deprioritization is “the temporary slowing of data speeds for certain customers in order to give priority to other customers,” and this happens when you are using your phone when there’s network congestion and/or you are in a high traffic area like a concert or stadium. Your data will be a bit slower than normal but will go back to normal shortly. 

With throttling it’s a bit different as it is “the dramatic slowing of your data speeds to the point that it becomes almost unusable.” This happens when you go over your data cap for the month, you’ll find this information or data cap number in your plan if it has one or at the bottom of the provider’s website. Throttling will last until the start of your next billing cycle or you buy more data.

Data deprioritization and throttling are more frequently occurring with MVNOs like Straight Talk Wireless and TracFone. Always make sure to do your research before you buy as sometimes this might be a dealbreaker for some heavier data users.

What the Coverage Looks Like from Both Providers

Having good, solid coverage in your town and other frequently visited locations is super important for a phone plan, so here’s what the coverage looks like for both Straight Talk Wireless and TracFone.

-> Straight Talk Wireless & TracFone

We mentioned in the Straight Talk Wireless overview that they are a bit of an anomaly for MVNOs and that’s because they are partnered with multiple carriers to provide coverage instead of the typical one. On their website they state that they “share networks with the best four carriers” and those four carriers are Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint- (although Sprint was acquired by T-Mobile in 2020 they still provide coverage through their cell towers that were established before the merge).

Now obviously as a consumer that’s very enticing as you can rely on a few providers instead of one, but it should be noted that that might not always be the case with Straight Talk.

Get ready for this tailspin of a fun fact: Straight Talk Wireless is a brand of TracFone Wireless, Inc. (yes, the very same TracFone we are comparing Straight Talk to) and TracFone was bought by Verizon officially back in 2021, and Verizon has said they eventually want all customers under those umbrellas to fall under Verizon and Verizon only. 

With that information we thought we’d thought it best to talk about Verizon’s coverage as a whole since TracFone is solely covered by Verizon itself.

Verizon is the nation-wide leader in 4G LTE, covering over 70% of the country they are number one in this field. Specifically those who live in more rural areas will have the most luck with Verizon’s coverage. Although they are the leaders in 4G LTE, they are a bit behind in the 5G race. Coming in at number three with T-Mobile and AT&T beating them out, Verizon may not have the wide-spread reach that those two have but their 5G packs a powerful punch winning in  “5G Games Experience, 5G Voice App Experience, and 5G Video Experience” categories.

As you’re researching cell phone carriers you will come across a few coverage maps which are maps showing off the provider’s approximate coverage. You can zoom in and out of the map and look up your own city so you can see how their coverage fares there. With Straight Talk’s coverage map you will need to enter in your phone’s model and ZIP so you can view their map fully, as an example here is New York with the iPhone 15 128GB:

Straight Talk’s coverage is in the United States only- (not pictured is parts of Hawaii and Alaska which are also covered). You can get an in-depth look at their coverage map here.

And funnily enough, just like Straight Talk, with TracFone you will also have to plug in your ZIP and enter your current phone model or the model in which you are interested in buying from TracFone. For their map we used the example of New York on the Samsung Galaxy A35 5G:

It’s no wonder since Straight Talk is a subsidiary of TracFone that their coverage map options and coverage maps look a bit similar. However from the looks of things it seems that they are only showing their LTE coverage and not their 5G. We checked and they do offer 5G service. To view TracFone’s full coverage map yourself click here.

How the Plans Compare: From Price to Features

We’re now at the part where we get to take a closer look at both Straight Talk and TracFone’s cell phone plans. Starting simply with Straight Talk:

And then we have variations of those plans:

Most of their plans come with some international benefits and hotspot usage, but their three most popular plans come with additional benefits: a Walmart+ Membership which gets you free delivery from the store, mobile scan and go, and more, along with cloud storage- and who doesn’t love extra cloud storage?

TracFone’s cell phone plans work a bit differently than your average provider. For one there are a lot of plans, twenty to be exact, and they are super barebones which you can see below. They also are measured in “Service Days” which is how long you will have cell service for and you can refill your service and add-on additional texts, minutes, and gigabytes of data at any time in your service through their website or through their “Airtime” cards purchased at your local general stores. 

TracFone offers a huge amount of plans with varying degrees of texts, minutes, and data- but they are all super low amounts which if you don’t use your phone at all besides for its basic functions then this is a good plan to have. TracFone is recommended for work phones and elderly people.

The Verdict

We’ve got all the information, now’s the time to say which one is better and for today’s match up of Straight Talk vs TracFone we’ll say that it mainly comes down to preference, how often you use your phone, and what you use it for. If you are a frequent phone user TracFone is not for you, Straight Talk is 1000 times better as it gives you way more options for data and other benefits like hotspot usage and international range.

If you are looking for an elderly person who only wants a phone so they can communicate with the rest of the world and won’t touch it besides calling and sending the occasional text then TracFone is the way to go. But we think for someone who is looking for a phone service and not just a mobile landline you’ll want to pick Straight Talk Wireless.

And if you want to compare and contrast Straight Talk and TracFone to over 1,200 other phone plans so you know you’re getting the service that’s right for you, then make sure to check out the REALLY compare page which allows you to look at pricing, coverage, what phone plans are available, current deals and steals, and how you can make the most of your potential phone bill.