Essential vs Advanced Plans – What are the differences?

Note: Three no longer offers Essential Plans – all its plans are now Advanced ones (and aren’t always labelled as such, since there’s no alternative). However, if you’re on an existing Three contract you may still be on an Essential Plan, so you may still be interested in the differences. Our article below covers these.

For a while Three offered both Essential Plans and Advanced Plans. Now it just offers Advanced ones, but some existing customers will still be on an Essential Plan.

There are a lot of similarities between the two, but there are also a number of differences, so we’ve created this guide to get to the heart of them.

We'll get into detail later on in this article, but first if you just want a quick overview check out the table below, which gives a snapshot of all the differences between Essential and Advanced plans.

And for more information on either plan make sure to check out our in depth Three Essential Plans guide and our comprehensive Three Advanced Plans guide.

	Essential Plans	Advanced Plans
Feel At Home in Europe	✔	✔
Feel At Home Around The World	✖	✔
Tethering	✖	✔
Go Binge	✖	✔ with 12GB or more
Free calls to customer service	✖	✔
4G at no extra cost	✔	✔
4G Super-Voice	✔	✔
Control your spend	✔	✔
Unlimited Texts	✔	✔
My3 Online and Three App	✔	✔
Free WiFi on the London Underground	✔	✔

We’ll get into what differs between the two plan types below, but there are a few things that are the same on both, as you can see in the table above.

For example, both plans give you access to 4G data and you can even roam across the EU at no extra cost on both. You can also use 4G Super-Voice on both Essential and Advanced Plans, plus both offer free Wi-Fi on the London Underground, so despite the name Essential Plans offer more than just the essentials.

Free roaming in more destinations with an Advanced Plan

Advanced Plans are ideal for anyone who travels a lot, be it on holiday or for work, as they include Feel At Home Around the World – Three’s service which lets you use your minutes, texts and data in 71 international destinations compared to 48 EU destinations with Essential Plans. 

Essential Plans still let you roam in some places, but only offer Feel at Home in Europe. That means you can roam for free in the 48 European destinations listed above, but not in Australia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemela, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Israel, Macau, Mayotte, New Zealand, Panama, Peru, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Uruguay, USA, US Virgin Islands and Vietnam, so you’ll have to pay Three’s standard roaming rates to use your phone on more distant shores.

It’s an impressive list, but if your travels aren’t likely to take you to those places then an Essential Plan might be a better choice.

Tethering included only with Advanced Plans

Advanced Plans also allow you to use your data allowance as a personal hotspot, meaning you can tether other devices like laptops and tablets to your phone, getting them online when there’s no Wi-Fi available.

If this is a feature that you rely on then an Advanced Plan is the obvious choice.

Go Binge with Advanced Plans

Three's new Go Binge service lets you stream Apple Music, Netflix, Deezer, Lifetime, Snapchat, SoundCloud and TVPlayer without the data coming out of your allowance, so you can stream as much as you want, but this is only available on Advanced Plans, and even then only on ones with a data allowance of 12GB or more.

Save money with an Essential Plan

While Essential Plans lack certain extras they’re cheaper as a result. Exact prices will depend on the allowances you choose and your handset choice (if opting for a Pay Monthly contract).

But as an example, at the bottom end you can get a SIM Only 12-month contract with 200 minutes and 500MB of data for just £5 on an Essential Plan, while it will cost £7 on an Advanced Plan. There's a similar difference on pricier plans.

Get unlimited data with an Advanced Plan

This isn’t likely to be an issue for too many people, but if you want truly unlimited data you’ll want an Advanced Plan, as Essential Plans don’t offer that much. Essential Plans currently top out at 12GB of Pay Monthly and 8GB on SIM Only.

Gain flexibility with an Essential Plan

Sure, Essential Plans lack some of the features of an Advanced Plan, but one of those features, namely tethering, can be added whenever you want, giving you the freedom to add or remove it as and when you need it and not pay for it when you don’t.

You can buy a 30-day add-on with 1GB of tethering allowance for £5, 3GB for £7 or 6GB for £8. Also, while you can’t get unlimited data on Essential Plans you can top your data up if you run low.

Conclusion

Advanced Plans are ideal if you go abroad a lot to locations not covered by Feel at Home in Europe or like to tether other devices to your phone. Using your phone abroad beyond the EU on an Essential Plan is likely to cost more than you’re saving on your contract price and although you can buy a tethering add-on that too is going to end up pricier than an Advanced Plan if you tether regularly.

Unless you’re a really heavy user data limits aren’t likely to be a factor, since you can still get loads on Essential Plans, but if your phone of choice isn’t available on one that’s a good reason to go Advanced, and if you like to stream a lot then you could benefit from Go Binge.

But if none of these are issues then there’s little to lose by opting for an Essential Plan and a lot to save.

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The information contained on this website has been written to assist our readers. We do not represent Three or speak on its behalf and are entirely independent of Three.