YouFibre vs Virgin Media: fixed price vs cable

YouFibre and Virgin Media run separate networks to the same doors. YouFibre sells on Netomnia's own full fibre in towns across the North, the Midlands, Wales and Scotland. Virgin Media sells on its own cable network across much of the UK. Where both have built, the choice is a price fixed for 24 months with the same speed both ways, against cable download speeds with TV, a landline and O2 extras on the side.

How do YouFibre and Virgin Media compare at a glance?

The table takes prices, speeds, contract lengths, set-up fees and scheduled price rises from our live deal feed, so it matches the deals on our comparison pages today. The network, guarantee and exit-fee rows come from each provider's own terms, checked on 11 October 2026.

Is YouFibre cheaper than Virgin Media?

At gigabit speed, yes once the rises are counted. When we checked on 11 October 2026, YouFibre's You 1000, at 900Mbps, was £24 a month fixed for 24 months. Virgin's Gig1, at 1,130Mbps, was £23.99 a month rising to £27.99 in April 2027 and £31.99 in April 2028. YouFibre's £24 stays £24 for all 24 months, while Virgin's £23.99 becomes £27.99 after the first April in the contract and £31.99 after the second.

At the entry level Virgin is cheaper on the day and dearer after its first rise. Its M250, at 264Mbps, was £18.99 a month against £22 for You 200, but it becomes £22.99 after the first April and £26.99 after the second, while You 200 stays at £22. YouFibre's 1.8Gbps and 7Gbps tiers, at £34.99 and £50 when we checked, go beyond anything Virgin sells through our feed.

Both sets of prices are online offers and they move, so read the live table rather than relying on either headline.

Which is faster, and does upload speed matter?

On download, Virgin's Gig1 edges YouFibre's You 1000, and Virgin's cable reaches that speed everywhere it is sold, while YouFibre's two faster tiers go well beyond it. On upload the gap runs the other way: every YouFibre deal is symmetric, and Virgin's cable uploads at a fraction of its download speed, as the table shows.

For streaming and browsing, upload speed barely registers. It matters if you work from home on video calls, back up photos to the cloud, send large files or stream your own gaming. A 10GB folder takes about a minute and a half to upload at 900Mbps and over half an hour at 41Mbps. YouFibre's advertised speeds are for a wired connection, as its site says, and Wi-Fi will be slower on both networks.

Can the price go up during the contract?

Not with YouFibre, and yes with Virgin, by a published amount. YouFibre's terms, effective 10 July 2026, say: "Annual price increases will not apply to Fixed Term Packages." Every YouFibre deal in our feed is flagged fixed price, and its site repeats "No in-contract price rises" on each plan. Once the fixed term ends, a rolling package "may increase each year in accordance with the Consumer Price Index (CPI)", and you can end it on one month's notice if you don't accept that.

Virgin Media's rise is £4 a month each April. Its price-change page says "The monthly subscription charge for your main services will increase by £4". It adds that "you won't be given a right to cancel your agreement during your minimum period without incurring an early disconnection fee". On Gig1 that means £23.99 now, £27.99 from April 2027 and £31.99 from April 2028, as the table shows: £4 a month more after the first rise and £8 more after the second.

If knowing your bill for two years matters more to you than a higher download figure, that is the whole argument for YouFibre. Our price rise guide explains how the rules work.

What about contract length and getting set up?

Every YouFibre deal in our feed runs for 24 months. Its site also sells rolling monthly and 12-month fixed-price plans, which aren't in our feed, and its contract buy-out needs the 24-month term. Virgin Media's deals in our feed are all 24 months too, with a 30-day rolling option on its site.

Set-up is free with both. YouFibre installs its own fibre, so an engineer connects you, and its site promises "Free install & no set-up fees". Virgin Media's QuickStart kit is free to self-install, with a £30 charge if you want an engineer instead, according to its broadband page. Virgin's checker also says "All products are subject to survey, network capacity and a credit check".

Who pays your exit fee?

YouFibre's Contract Buy Out page says: "You'll get up to £300 towards the cost of leaving when you join us for 24 months". You send your final bill with the early termination charge "listed on your bill as a separate item", pay your first YouFibre bill, and YouFibre pays you back. Virgin Media's deals in our feed carry no reward or buy-out.

If you're mid-contract with Virgin, our exit fee calculator estimates what you'd owe, so you can see whether £300 covers it.

Do you want TV, a landline or a mobile deal with it?

Here Virgin Media has far more on the shelf. Our feed carries Virgin TV bundles from £28.99 a month when we checked, with Flex TV's 150-plus channels or Mega TV with Netflix, plus broadband and phone packages and bundles with an O2 SIM. O2 customers also get extras on Virgin broadband: double mobile data, Priority offers and a speed boost on the M125 to M500 tiers. Our Virgin Media TV channels guide covers what's in each tier.

YouFibre is broadband first. Our feed has no TV or phone bundles from it. Its site sells a Youphone internet phone service as an add-on, and no TV. If you want TV, broadband and mobile on one bill, Virgin is the only one of the two that does it.

Which one guarantees your speed?

Both do, in different ways. Virgin Media is a signatory to Ofcom's Broadband Speeds Code. That gives you a minimum guaranteed speed at the point of sale, and a right to leave without penalty if speeds fall below it and can't be fixed within 30 days. Virgin's deals in our feed are also part of Ofcom's automatic compensation scheme, which pays set amounts for missed appointments and delayed repairs.

YouFibre is not a Code signatory, but its terms carry a guarantee of their own. Clause 6.1 says: "We guarantee to comply with the minimum guaranteed upload and download speeds in the table below, calculated by taking the mid-point between the fastest and slowest speeds for each package at peak times (8-10pm)". If speeds "consistently fall below" that minimum and YouFibre can't fix it within 30 days, clause 6.3 lets you end the contract without an early termination charge. We found no automatic compensation commitment on YouFibre's site.

How do their service records compare?

Ofcom's complaints figures for January to March 2026 put Virgin Media at 6 complaints per 100,000 broadband customers, level with the industry average of 6. Ofcom does not report complaints for providers of YouFibre's size, so there is no like-for-like figure. Both appear in the Trustpilot row of the table above, with the caveat that sits under it.

What does it cost to leave early?

YouFibre's price book, last updated on 9 October 2026, sets out the method. It starts with "The remaining amount owed up to the end of the minimum commitment period, excluding VAT". Then "we then take off the costs we save (e.g., in payments to suppliers) as a result of leaving early", and VAT is added back. It doesn't publish the deduction, so we can't give you a figure. Rolling packages have no early termination charge at all, just 30 days' notice.

Virgin Media charges a percentage of your monthly price for each month left, from tables it publishes for standard and offer pricing, and says "all fees apply after the standard 30-day notice period". Our exit fee calculator models Virgin at 90% of the monthly price per remaining month, the low end of its published offer-price range, so treat the result as an estimate.

Where can you get both?

YouFibre publishes its towns region by region on its locations page. The biggest cluster is the North West, where it lists more than 50 places including Stockport, Bolton, Preston and Blackburn. It also names towns across Yorkshire, the West Midlands, Wales, the South West, the North East and central Scotland, and Londonderry in Northern Ireland.

Virgin Media's cable runs through much of the UK: 137 of our 153 broadband area pages list it. Our pages for Stockport, Blackburn, Dudley and Swansea list both providers, as do Bristol and Darlington. Availability varies street by street on both networks, so check both at your postcode before you decide.

Why you might choose YouFibre

• You want a price that can't change for 24 months, in writing.
• You upload as much as you download: video calls, cloud backups, streaming or large files.
• You want more than a gigabit, with 1.8Gbps and 7Gbps tiers in our feed.
• You're mid-contract elsewhere and its buy-out of up to £300 would cover your exit fee.
• You don't need TV or a phone bundle.

Why you might choose Virgin Media

• You want TV, broadband and phone, or an O2 SIM, on one bill.
• You're an O2 customer and would use the double data and speed boost.
• You want a minimum speed guarantee under Ofcom's code and automatic compensation in writing.
• You'd rather plug in a self-install kit than book an engineer.
• YouFibre hasn't reached your street yet, which is still the case for most of the UK.

How do you switch between them?

Because the two networks are separate, a switch means a new connection is installed rather than your existing line changing hands. One Touch Switch still applies. YouFibre's support site says: "If you want us to handle switching you from your current provider to us, you'll be able to select One Touch Switch when you place your YouFibre order online or over the phone". It then arranges for your old connection to be "switched off once your service is fully up and running with us". If you're moving a phone number across, it keeps the old broadband running until the number has ported. Our One Touch Switch guide walks through it.

If you're mid-contract with Virgin, its early disconnection fee applies after a 30-day notice period, and YouFibre's buy-out can cover up to £300 of it on a 24-month deal. Going the other way, Virgin's deals in our feed offer nothing towards YouFibre's charge.

Sources and how we checked

Prices, speeds, contract lengths, set-up fees and scheduled rises come from our live deal feed, checked on 11 October 2026 and refreshed whenever the site updates. The rest comes from the sources below, read on the dates shown.

• YouFibre, read 11 October 2026: residential terms, price book, Contract Buy Out, locations and One Touch Switch pages.
• Virgin Media, read 10 October 2026: broadband, annual price change, early disconnection fees and Ofcom codes pages.
• Ofcom: telecoms complaints data for January to March 2026.

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