Giffgaff review

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

How good is Giffgaff?

We spoke to more than 3,305 real customers from 16 of the biggest phone providers including EE, O2, Vodafone and Three. They told us exactly what they thought of their phone company, from the customer service on offer to the value for money they get.

In this in-depth review of Giffgaff, we'll:

• give you a full breakdown of how its customers rated it for key factors, including customer service, value for money and incentives.
• report quotes from real Giffgaff mobile customers on their experiences.
• tell you whether it's a Which? Recommended Provider.

Only logged-in Which? members can unlock the exclusive results on this page. If you’re not yet a member, you can get instant access by joining Which? today.

Browse all of Giffgaff's Sim-only deals at Which? Switch Mobile.  

What network does Giffgaff use?

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

How good is Giffgaff's mobile coverage?

You can check coverage where you live by using our free 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 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 1GB of data with unlimited minutes and texts. Spending more gives you more minutes, texts and data. Costs outside your monthly allowance are reasonable – calls to UK mobiles and landlines are 25p a minute (free to other Giffgaff numbers) and 10p per text and MB of data – although the cost per minute continues 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.

You can also buy a phone from Giffgaff if you want. 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.

Giffgaff stores

As mentioned above, Giffgaff is an online-only provider and doesn't have any of its own shops. If you need any help or advice, 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 influenced 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.