EE’s No Frills, Essentials, All Rounder and Full Works plans compared

Some networks keep things simple when it comes to smartphone plans – but not EE. The network offers essentially six different types of plan that you can get with a new phone, on SIM-only, or with a connected device.

That’s no bad thing as it means you have more options and can find the perfect fit, but it does mean the network’s offerings take some explaining.

That’s where this guide comes in. Below, we’ll talk you through the six plan types on offer, namely No Frills plans, Essentials plans, Essentials Plus plans, All Rounder plans, Full Works for Android plans, and Full Works for iPhone plans. Then, at the end we’ve compared them all directly, so you can see at a glance how they stack up – and which one is right for you.

What are No Frills plans?

EE’s No Frills plans are the network’s most basic – and therefore affordable – plans. But these are really only for very light users.

For a start, at the time of writing you can only get up to 5GB of data with a No Frills plan, and their speeds also top out at just 10Mbps, which is slower even than average 4G speeds – so there’s no access to proper 5G here.

You do at least get unlimited minutes and texts though. Plus, at the time of writing you also get a six-month subscription to Apple Music, Apple TV Plus, and Apple Arcade with these plans. These are quite significant perks for such a basic plan to offer.

What are Essentials plans?

Essentials plans are EE’s second most basic plan type, and as such they come with fewer extras than the following plans. That said, they still give you a lot more than a No Frills plan.

The biggest limitation with these is that data tops out at 100Mbps, so in other words they can’t take advantage of the full potential speed of 5G – though 100Mbps is still very fast, and ten times the speed of EE’s No Frills plans.

Some extras are included too, such as Stay Connected – a feature which allows you to continue using data at speeds of 0.5Mbps when you’ve used up your allowance. So you’ll never truly run out of data, you’ll just be limited to very low speeds once you use it up – until your allowances reset, you buy a data add-on, or are gifted data.

And these plans include data gifting, which lets you move data between plans on your account if you have more than one – this is available on all plan types except No Frills.

You can also get a six-month subscription to Apple Music, Apple TV Plus, and Apple Arcade thrown in with these plans.

What are Essentials Plus plans?

Essentials Plus plans are similar to Essentials plans in many ways – most notably that data speeds top out at 100Mbps.

However, you get more here, with the highlight being EU roaming included. Essentials Plus plans also come with unlimited watch data, meaning you can get unlimited data for a smartwatch if that’s also on EE.

These plans also only come with unlimited data, so there’s no ‘Stay Connected’ here as it’s not needed.

What are All Rounder plans?

All Rounder plans are EE’s second most premium plan option, and might well prove to be the most popular. These come with unrestricted speeds, so you can make the most of EE’s 5G network.

On top of that, they also come with a choice of ‘Inclusive Extra.’ These are a selection of inclusive subscriptions and other perks, which you can choose one of for the duration of the plan. The current selection is as follows:

Netflix Standard with adverts or Google One 2TB Premium (if choosing SIM Only or an Android phone plan), or a choice of Apple Music or Apple TV Plus (if pairing this plan with an iPhone).

That’s on top of optional six-month subscriptions to Apple Music, Apple TV Plus and Apple Arcade.

All Rounder plans also come with EU roaming, just like Essentials Plus plans do, along with data gifting and unlimited watch data.

What is a Full Works for Android plan?

Full Works for Android is one of EE’s two top plans, along with Full Works for iPhone, which we’ll get to below.

With a Full Works for Android plan, you get to choose one Inclusive Extra, but from a bigger selection than All Rounder plans. The options are:

Netflix Premium, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, Google One AI Premium, or TNT Sports on Discovery+.

You also get worldwide roaming included, though in practice outside Europe you’re limited to Australia, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, and the US.

Of course, data speeds are also unrestricted, and you also get access to data gifting, unlimited watch data, and optional six-month subscriptions to Apple services.

What is a Full Works for iPhone plan?

A Full Works for iPhone plan is very similar to a Full Works for Android plan, including worldwide roaming (in 52 destinations), unrestricted speeds, unlimited watch data, and data gifting.

These plans also similarly come with one Inclusive Extra, however the selection is different here. You can choose from:

TNT Sports on Discovery Plus, or Apple One, which itself comes with subscriptions to Apple Music, Apple TV Plus, Apple Arcade, and 50GB of iCloud Plus storage.

How do EE’s plans compare?

As you can see, No Frills plans are extremely restrictive, so if you want lots of data or high speed data these won’t be suitable.

Essentials plans are a big upgrade in terms of speeds and data limits, and Essentials Plus plans additionally unlock EU roaming.

But the main reason to pick an All Rounder or Full Works plan over an Essentials or Essentials Plus one is that you get uncapped data speeds. You also get a range of additional possible perks – including worldwide roaming in the case of Full Works plans.

However, these plans also therefore come at a higher cost, so if you don’t need the top speeds of 5G and won’t be roaming a lot, then an Essentials plan is worth considering. You can still get unlimited minutes, texts and optionally data, and you still get a taste of some subscriptions through it, they just don’t last as long.

For the ultimate smartphone plan though, you’ll have to go for a Full Works one. These are packed full of extras and arguably have the top plans from rival networks beat.