About Canstar's Most Satisfied Customers Prepaid Mobile Award
Canstar's Most Satisfied Customers Prepaid Mobile Award reveals the mobile phone provider that delivers the best consumer satisfaction to its customers.
We ask Kiwi prepaid customers to rate their satisfaction with their providers by Overall Satisfaction, as well as important criteria such as Customer Service, Network Coverage and Value for Money.
Numbers crunched by Canstar's researchers:
- 1900 Customers Surveyed
- 11 Providers Assessed
- 6 Providers Shortlisted
- 1 Award Winner
The best prepaid mobile provider in NZ
The brands rated are listed below in order of best overall satisfaction. Prices correct 06/07/2026.
1. Kogan Mobile
This year, Kogan Mobile breaks Skinny's 11-year award winning streak to take home our Prepaid Mobile Award.
Kogan was founded by entrepreneur Ruslan Kogan 25 years ago in Australia as an online own-brand electrical goods retailer. Since then it's grown into a huge company, selling a wide range of products on its NZ and OZ websites.
Here in Aotearoa, it owns online retailer MightyApe.co.nz. However, despite its size, the Kogan Mobile brand is still a small player in the mobile phone market. But it's deserving of greater attention, because if you're after a cheap, no-frills phone plan, Kogan Mobile's pre-paid deals are some of the cheapest around.
In this year's award ratings, Kogan is the only provider to earn a 5-Star rating from its customers for Value for Money, a score it also achieves for Billing Transparency, Network Coverage and Sign-up & Activation, alongside great 4.5 ratings for Customer Service and Plan Management.
Kogan keeps it simple with just four pre-paid phone plans, and two pre-paid periods: 31 Days and 365 Days. And if you pay for a 12-month plan upfront, Kogan offers a discount.
All plans offer unlimited calls & texts to NZ/OZ:
31-day | 365-day plans:
- $15 Plan: 1.5GB data | $160 per year (= $13.59 per 31 days)
- $25 Plan: 4GB data | $250 per year (= $21.23 per 31 days)
- $35 Plan: 15GB data | $330 per year (= $28.03 per 31 days)
- $55 Plan: 32GB data | $490 per year (= $41.62 per 31 days)
Kogan Mobile uses the One NZ network.
2. Skinny
Skinny Mobile is a division of Spark. However, instead of offering all the extras that Spark bundles with its plans, like Spotify discounts, Skinny concentrates on the basics – calls, texts and data – at a reduced price.
Skinny has six monthly plans, which cater for all budgets and mobile-use needs. 5G is currently included in all Skinny plans at no extra cost.
Skinny also offers weekly plans, although they work out slightly more expensive.
Four-weekly plans:
- $8 Plan: 250MB data & 100 mins & unlimited texts to NZ/OZ
- $17 Plan: 1.5GB rollover data & 200 rollover mins & unlimited texts to NZ/OZ*
- $27 Plan: 4GB rollover data & 300 rollover mins & unlimited texts to NZ/OZ*
- $40 Plan: Endless data (speeds reduce after 10GB) & unlimited calls & texts to NZ/OZ**
- $50 Plan: Endless data (speeds reduce after 40GB) & unlimited calls & texts to NZ/OZ**
- $70 Plan: Endless data (no max speed cap) & unlimited calls & texts to NZ/OZ**
Yearly plans:
Skinny also offers two 12-months plans that offer considerable savings. The data, call and text allowances renew every 28 days.
- $296 Plan: 4GB rollover data & 300 rollover mins & unlimited texts to NZ/OZ*
- $439 Plan: Endless data (speeds reduce after 10GB) & unlimited calls & texts to NZ/OZ **
*Extras: Unlimited mins to other Skinny mobiles **Extras: Hotspotting
3. 2degrees
2degrees offers eight prepaid monthly plans, plus four two-week plans. And each, except the cheapest $8 monthly plan, comes with a great perk: a free hour of data each day to use at a time that suits your data needs:
Prepaid (calendar month):
- $8 Plan: 150MB data & 100 mins & unlimited texts to NZ/OZ
- $15 Plan: 1GB data & 100 mins & unlimited texts to NZ/OZ
- $20 Plan: 2GB data & 200 mins & unlimited texts to NZ/OZ
- $25 Plan: 3GB data & 250 mins & unlimited texts to NZ/OZ
- $35 Plan: 4.5GB data & 300 mins & unlimited texts to NZ/OZ
- $45 Plan: 10GB data & unlimited calls & texts to NZ/OZ
- $60 Plan: 50GB data & unlimited calls & texts to NZ/OZ
- $85 Plan: Endless data (no max speed cap) & unlimited calls & texts to NZ/OZ
Prepaid (fortnightly: 14 days):
- $11 Plan: 1.25GB data & 100 mins & unlimited texts to NZ/OZ
- $19 Plan: 4GB data & 150 mins & unlimited texts to NZ/OZ
- $24 Plan: 7GB data & unlimited calls & texts to NZ/OZ
- $34 Plan: 40GB data & 250 mins & unlimited texts to NZ/OZ
NB: All plans offer unlimited calls to other 2degrees mobiles, hotspotting, free voicemail and are 5G ready.
4. Warehouse Mobile
Warehouse mobile offers a range of five easy-on-the-pocket prepaid mobile plans. The ability to call beyond NZ and Australia makes them a great option for those who want to stay in touch with family and friends overseas.
Prepay (four-weekly)
- $9 Plan: 300MB data & 100 mins & unlimited texts to NZ/OZ (and 13 other destinations*)
- $15 Plan: 1.25GB rollover data & 200 rollover mins & unlimited texts to NZ/OZ
- $25 Plan: 4GB rollover data & texts to NZ/OZ
- $35 Plan: 6GB rollover data & unlimited calls & texts to NZ/OZ
- $45 Plan: 30GB rollover data & unlimited calls & texts to NZ/OZ
All plans offer voicemail, free calls to other Warehouse Mobile numbers. Warehouse mobile uses the 2degrees mobile network.
*Other destinations include standard landline or mobile numbers in: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, England, Germany, India, Israel, Malaysia, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Scotland, Singapore, South Korea, USA (excluding Alaska and Hawaii), Wales.
5. One NZ
One has seven prepaid plans. There are four cheaper plans, $30 and under, two endless data plans that offer unlimited data with speed caps after data limits, and one unlimited max-speed plan.
All unused rollover data lasts up to a year. DataUp on Rollover plans offers up to 100% free data if your plan renews regularly.
Prepaid (calendar month)
- $10 Plan: 250MB data & 100 mins & unlimited texts to NZ/OZ
- $18 Plan: 1GB data & unlimited calls & texts to NZ/OZ + DataUp
- $23 Plan: 2GB data & unlimited calls & texts to NZ/OZ + DataUp
- $30 Plan: 3GB data & unlimited calls & texts to NZ/OZ + DataUp
- $50 Plan: Endless data (speeds reduce after 6GB) & unlimited calls & texts to NZ/OZ
- $73 Plan: Endless data (speeds reduce after 50GB) & unlimited calls & texts to NZ/OZ
- $88 Plan: Endless data (no max speed cap) & unlimited calls & texts to NZ/OZ + 250 mins & 50 texts to 20 international destinations
6. Spark
All of Spark's prepaid plans come with a Spotify discount, and more expensive plans offer free Spotify data and Data Stack.
Data Stack: earn 100MB of data every 28 days when you stay on an eligible Spark Prepaid Value Pack, up to a maximum of 10GB. Unused Data Stack does not roll over.
Prepay (calendar month)
- $18 Plan: 1GB data & 100 mins & unlimited texts to NZ/OZ + 10% Spotify Premium discount
- $23 Plan: 2GB rollover data & 200 mins & unlimited texts to NZ/OZ + 10% Spotify Premium discount
- $28 Plan: 3GB rollover data & 250 mins & unlimited texts to NZ/OZ + 10% Spotify Premium discount, free Spotify Data
- $40 Plan: 4.5GB rollover data & unlimited calls & texts to NZ/OZ + 10% Spotify Premium discount, free Spotify Data
- $60 Plan: 20GB rollover data & unlimited calls & texts to NZ/OZ + 10% Spotify Premium discount, free Spotify Data
- $90 Plan: Endless data (speeds reduce after 80GB) & unlimited calls & texts to NZ/OZ + 10% Spotify Premium discount, free Spotify Data
All plans offer: rollover on call, text and data limit, hotspotting and Data Stack (not $18 plan).
Other prepaid providers not rated by Canstar
Not all mobile prepaid plan providers in the market qualify for our ratings (based on minimum survey sample size), but that doesn’t mean they’re not worth considering. Here are more providers to check out before making a decision.
- Kiwi Mobile
- Mighty Mobile
- Rocket Mobile
Kiwi Mobile
Kiwi Mobile has two phone plans that deliver unlimited data, capped at download speeds of 1.2Mbps once you hit one of five data caps: Choice Lite and Choice. It also has one plan that offers endless data, calls and texts that has no speed cap: Choice As.
The Choice Lite and Choice plans are unique because once you hit your data cap, if you don't want your data speed slowed to 1.2Mbps, you can opt to move up to the next data tier. You can do this manually through the Kiwi Mobile app, or do it automatically. If you opt to increase your data limit, the daily cost of your plan rises accordingly for those days of additional data.
However, whatever data/price tier you end up on by the end of the month, when the next billing cycle comes around (there are 12 per calendar year), your plan automatically resets back down to your original plan.
Choice Lite Plan
Data Tiers | Cost |
|---|---|
1GB | $0.59/day ($17.95/m) |
1.5GB | $0.89/day ($27.07/m) |
2GB | $1.19/day ($36.20/m) |
3GB | $1.49/day ($45.32/m) |
4GB | $1.79/day ($54.45/m) |
Choice Plan
Kiwi Mobile's Choice plan allows you to link up to four users. If there are two linked plans, both receive a discount of 15c per day, and if you link three or four plans that saving increases to 30c per day:
Data Tiers | Cost for 1 Plan | Cost for 1/2 Plans | Cost for 3/4 Plans |
|---|---|---|---|
5GB | $1.30/day ($39.54/m) | $1.15/day ($34.98/m) | $1/day ($30.42/m) |
10GB | $1.60/day ($48.67/m) | $1.45/day ($44.10/m) | $1.30/day ($39.54/m) |
20GB | $1.90/day ($57.79/m) | $1.75/day ($53.23/m) | $1.60/day ($48.67/m) |
30GB | $2/day ($60.83/m) | $1.85/day ($56.27/m) | $1.70/day ($51.71/m) |
100GB | $2.10/day ($63.88/m) | $1.95/day ($59.31/m) | $1.80/day ($54.75/m) |
Each plan features:
- Endless data – all plans have endless data till max speed limit, then reduced to 1.2Mbps
- Talk & Text – unlimited NZ/OZ
Choice As Plan
$68 Choice As Plan: Endless data (no max speed cap) & unlimited calls & texts to NZ/OZ
All Kiwi Mobile plans have:
- 5G – plans are 5G ready
- Hotspot – included with all plans
Mighty Mobile
Mighty Mobile is a pre-paid telco service from online retailer Mighty Ape. It piggybacks on the One NZ network, so offers premier coverage across the country.
Like Rocket Mobile's plans, Mighty Mobile's point of difference is that the data speeds on its cheaper plans come already capped, albeit at speeds that still permit video streaming.
Mighty Mobile's plans are available in monthly, or you can pay for 12 months upfront for a discount, as shown.
Prepaid monthly | yearly plans
- $40 Plan: Endless data up to 10Mbps & unlimited calls & texts to NZ/OZ | $399 per year (= $33.25/m)
- $50 Plan: Endless data up to 50Mbps & unlimited calls & texts to NZ/OZ | $499 per year (=$41.58/m)
- $75 Plan: Endless data (no speed cap) & unlimited calls & texts to NZ/OZ | $749 per year (= $62.42/m)
Mighty Mobile also has one cheap starter plan with a data cap, perfect for a child or if you don't use much data away from wi-fi:
- $25 Plan: 5GB data & unlimited calls & texts to NZ/OZ
Rocket Mobile
Rocket Mobile is a mobile-phone provider that offers a unique range of prepaid data plans that use One NZ's mobile network.
Rocket Mobile's main plans all offer endless data, although its three cheaper plans have data speed caps, albeit at levels that still permit video streaming.
Prepaid monthly
- $40 Plan: Endless data up to 10Mbps & unlimited calls & texts to NZ/OZ*
- $45 Plan: Endless data up to 40Mbps & unlimited calls & texts to NZ/OZ*
- $75 Plan: Endless data (no max speed cap) & unlimited calls & texts to NZ/OZ + 5G ready*
*Group plans are also available: $5 off the $40 and $45 plans, and $25 off the $75 plan.
Rocket mobile also has one capped data prepaid monthly plan:
- $17 Plan: 1.5GB & unlimited calls & texts to NZ/OZ
Choosing the best prepaid provider
All utilities – mobile, internet, power, electricity – only really come in one flavour: electricity is electricity, gas is gas, and access to a mobile service is pretty much the same whatever provider you use.
The only differences come down to the price and the associated packing of the phone products, for example value-added extras and customer service.
So it's not surprising to see that for most (28%) of the phone users in our survey satisfaction with their provider comes down to one thing: Value for Money.
Customer Service (20%) is also important, rating slightly higher than Network Coverage at 18%.
When it comes to Network Coverage, there are only three main mobile networks in the country, which all brands use. However, up until the roll-out of 5G, all three mobile phone networks were pretty consistent at delivering reliable coverage to around 98% of Kiwis.
However, now that 5G is proliferating, big differences in ultrafast network coverage are appearing, as all three networks update to the latest 5G tech, so users' perceptions of their network coverage can vary considerably.
Here's the full rundown of what the consumers in our survey say are the main things they consider when rating their prepaid providers.
- Value for Money: 28%
- Customer Service: 20%
- Network Coverage: 18%
- Billing Transparency: 13%
- Plan Management: 13%
- Sign-up & Activation: 8%
