The prices pull in opposite directions. Sky’s 500 Mb Ultrafast Plus is €30 for 12 months, then €67.50 — still the cheapest 500 Mb intro we list, now with the harshest fibre thereafter in the market apart from Eir. Vodafone’s 500 Mb is €25 for six months on a 24-month term (€35 on 12), then a standing €40 that does not jump when the contract ends; its 1 Gb is €35 for six months (€45 on 12), then €50. So Sky wins year one on 500 Mb; Vodafone wins every month after it and wins the gig outright, because Sky’s 1 Gb Ultrafast Max is €40 then €70. Cheaper intro, €20 a month less thereafter, and symmetrical upload on SIRO.
The small print is where the second year gets decided. Vodafone contracts signed since 16 October 2024 rise by a fixed €3.50 a month each April (€4.50 with TV; older contracts CPI+3%, 5.8% in April 2026), inside the minimum term, with no penalty-free exit. Sky raised its standard broadband prices by €3.50 in April 2026 but says a new customer’s offer price is protected for the offer period — the €67.50 you land on afterwards is not. Model both before you treat either intro as the number you will pay. Ranking: best broadband for Ireland. Eircode check: check broadband by Eircode.
Quick comparison
Side by side from published August 2026 prices and contract terms — the same data behind our best-broadband ranking. Green highlights the better figure on that row. Speeds are advertised headlines, not lab results we invented. Availability is always by Eircode.
| Sky | Vodafone | |
|---|---|---|
| Our score | 8.8 | 9.3 |
| Intro from | €30 | €25 |
| Thereafter from | €67.50 | €40 |
| Headline speed | 500 Mb | 1000 Mb |
| Annual rise | Yes | Yes |
| Networks | Open Eir FTTH, Open Eir FTTC, SIRO, NBI | Open Eir FTTH, Open Eir FTTC, SIRO, NBI, 5G home |
| TV bundle | Yes | Yes |
24-month cost: Sky’s €30 year vs Vodafone’s €40 that stays €40, worked out
Run the sums on the plans you would actually keep. Sky 500 Mb on 12 months: 12 × €30 plus 12 × €67.50 = €1,170 over two years if you stay. Sky 1 Gb: 12 × €40 plus 12 × €70 = €1,320. Vodafone 500 Mb on 24 months: 6 × €25 plus 18 × €40 = €870; on the 12-month plan over the same two years, 6 × €35 plus 18 × €40 = €930. Vodafone 1 Gb on 24 months: 6 × €35 plus 18 × €50 = €1,110. Add Vodafone’s fixed €3.50 from each April inside the term — roughly €70 across two years. Neither charges a setup fee. Sky’s own answer is its 24-month 500 Mb at a flat €35, €840 for the two years and the only Sky line that beats Vodafone’s total; it lands on the same €67.50 at month 25.
Read those totals against the stay. Year one on 500 Mb is Sky’s: €360 against Vodafone’s €390 on 24 months or €450 on 12. Over two years on 12-month terms Vodafone is about €240 cheaper, and from month 25 the gap is €27.50 every month (€40 vs €67.50). If the gig is the job, Vodafone is cheaper than Sky’s 1 Gb on intro (€35 vs €40), on thereafter (€50 vs €70) and over 24 months (€1,110 vs €1,320). Vodafone’s 2 Gb is €55→€70; Sky’s 5 Gb is €55→€90 and needs the Gigafast+ Hub. The cheapest-board view is at cheapest broadband in Ireland; the deals-of-the-month view is at best broadband deals.
Two wholesale retailers on the same poles — plus Vodafone’s 5G and SIRO stake
Neither company digs. Both place wholesale orders on Open Eir FTTH (and leftover FTTC), on SIRO, and on NBI. If the Eircode has Open Eir fibre, the engineer who turns up and the ONT on the wall are Open Eir’s whichever logo is on the invoice. The difference between a Sky line and a Vodafone line on that socket is the router, the contract and the support queue — not the cable. Where SIRO is on the ESB pole, Vodafone is the 50% owner of the network it is selling you; Sky is a tenant. That does not make Vodafone’s SIRO faster, but it explains why Vodafone’s SIRO tiers are the symmetrical ones.
Vodafone’s extra is 5G home broadband — a plug-in box for the weeks before an install, or for a house where fixed is a no. Sky has no wireless fallback in Ireland: if the checker says no fibre, Sky says no. Vodafone can also sell the GigaCube where nothing else reaches. Networks primer: Open Eir vs SIRO vs NBI vs Virgin. SIRO detail: SIRO explained. Wireless vs fibre: fibre vs 5G vs Starlink.
Sky’s 500/100 and 1000/100 vs Vodafone’s symmetrical SIRO tiers
Download is a wash at the same tier; upload is not. Sky’s Ultrafast Plus advertises 500 Mb down / 100 Mb up and Ultrafast Max 1 Gb / 100 Mb, on every network it sells including SIRO. Vodafone’s SIRO plans are 500/500 and 1000/1000; on Open Eir the same Vodafone plan drops to Open Eir’s 500/100 and 1000/200 profile. So the upload argument for Vodafone is really a SIRO argument — if the checker returns Open Eir for both, the two are selling the same physics. We score Vodafone 9.1 for speed and Sky 8.8, and that gap is the SIRO symmetry plus the 2 Gb tier; Sky’s 5 Gb (€55 then €90) is the counter where the Open Eir cabinet has it.
Two practical notes. Sky’s 1 Gb and above require the Sky Gigafast+ Hub (Wi-Fi 7); the 500 Mb plan ships with the standard Sky Hub, which is fine for a gigabit port but not for pushing 1 Gb around a three-bed on Wi-Fi. Vodafone ships its Gigabox; plenty of boards.ie posters still have the Wi-Fi 5 version and run their own router behind it, so ask what hardware you are getting on a gig plan before you assume Wi-Fi 6. Household maths: what speed do I need. Not seeing the number on the tin: not getting advertised speed.
Sky’s shielded offer price vs Vodafone’s fixed €3.50 inside the term
Both have annual rises; they work differently, and the difference matters more than the intro. Vodafone contracts signed or renewed since 16 October 2024 rise by a fixed €3.50 a month each April (€4.50 with TV); older contracts still carry the CPI+3% formula, which produced 5.8% in April 2026. It applies during the minimum term, it applies to the promo price, and Vodafone states it does not give you a right to cancel without penalty. On a €40 plan that is €43.50 from the first April and €47 from the second. Budget for it — and note that even at €47 Vodafone is €20 under Sky’s thereafter.
Sky raised standard broadband prices by €3.50 on 1 April 2026 (Ultrafast Plus standard from €64 to €67.50 on its own site) and says new customers’ offer prices are not affected for the offer period — so the €30 holds for the 12 months, and the rise lands on the €67.50 thereafter. Sky terms are 12 or 24 months, not 18. One more Irish wrinkle: in February 2026 the High Court, after a ComReg case, found Sky Ireland had not been telling customers when their minimum term ended and ordered it to start. Diary month 11 yourself anyway. Mechanics: April price rises. Leaving early: early termination fees.
Same three fibre maps; Vodafone also answers when the checker says no
On fixed fibre these two cover the same Ireland: Open Eir FTTH in the estates and along the rural roads Eir has lit, SIRO in the towns on ESB poles, NBI where the National Broadband Plan has passed. Coverage scores are Vodafone 8.8 and Sky 8.6; the gap is 5G. A house with no wired path at all can still be a Vodafone 5G home customer this week and a fibre customer later. Sky is fibre or nothing. Neither can touch Virgin Media’s cable.
If your result is FTTC-only, do not let either sell you a 500 Mb headline — the copper tail typically caps you near 100 Mb on both. If NBI is “coming” rather than live, Vodafone 5G is the sensible bridge and Sky is a wait. Check first, pick second: broadband by Eircode, when is NBI coming, best rural broadband.
The 500 Mb saver with Sky TV vs the gig household with Vodafone mobile
Pick Sky if you are a 500 Mb household — which is most households — and year one is what you are optimising, or you will take the flat-€35 24-month plan. €30 for a year is the cheapest 500 Mb intro on the site; €67.50 afterwards is not a stay, it is a switch date. The offer price is ring-fenced from the April rise, and if Sky TV, Netflix or sport is already in the house the broadband-and-TV bundles (Sky Stream, Sky TV, Netflix and 500 Mb from €45 in August 2026) actually net out. Sky Mobile from €10 a month is the other quiet bundle: the 500 Mb offer is open to existing TV and Mobile customers too, which Vodafone-style “new customers only” deals often are not. Bundles: broadband and TV bundles.
Pick Vodafone if you want a bill that settles at €40 or €50 and stays there, the gig, a SIRO upload, or mesh Wi-Fi without buying your own kit. Vodafone’s Super Wi-Fi is €5 a month per extender on a 30-day rolling add-on; the GigaHome bundle of Super Wi-Fi, Always Connected 4G backup and Secure Net at Home is €10 a month. Vodafone TV is a €20 add-on, and Vodafone mobile customers get €10 a month off broadband (RED Family / broadband plus two bill-pay) — check the current figure at checkout. Working from home on SIRO: best broadband for working from home. Wi-Fi gaps: Wi-Fi dead zones.
Wi-Fi Max guarantee vs Super Wi-Fi pods — and how to switch between them
Service scores are close: Sky 9.0, Vodafone 8.6. Sky took Switcher.ie’s 2026 provider, value and customer-service awards; Vodafone took technical support. Sky’s broadband line is 0818 762 917 with app and messaging 9am–7pm seven days; Vodafone is 1800 805 016 plus live chat and the My Vodafone app. The in-home difference is the Wi-Fi product. Sky’s Wi-Fi Max pairs a Sky Max Hub (or the Gigafast+ Hub on gig plans) with a “wall-to-wall coverage or money back” guarantee; it is free with Gigafast+ speeds and a paid add-on below that. Vodafone sells coverage by the pod — €5 a month per Super Wi-Fi extender — with no guarantee, but also no commitment.
Switching between them on a shared line is the easy case. On Open Eir FTTH or SIRO you are changing retailer on the same wholesale socket: order the new one first, do not cancel the old one, give the new provider your account number, and the migration is usually a same-day swap with no engineer — the ONT stays, the router changes. The exceptions are Sky-to-Vodafone onto SIRO where you were on Open Eir (a new install) and anything involving NBI. Cancel after the switch completes, inside 30 days of the new line going live, and return the old hub to avoid an equipment charge. Step by step: how to switch broadband. Moving house mid-term: moving house.
Which should you choose?
It comes down to the line at the house, then the bill. Here’s the quick way to decide.
Choose Sky if
500 Mb is enough (it is for most homes), you want the lowest 12-month full-fibre bill in Ireland at €30, and you will genuinely switch or renegotiate at month 11 rather than sit on €67.50. Or you will take Sky’s 24-month variant at a flat €35 — €840 over two years — which is the one Sky plan that beats Vodafone’s total. You would rather an offer price shielded from the April rise than a fixed €3.50 clause inside the contract. Sky TV, Netflix or live sport is already on the bill, so a bundle is not wasted money. You can live with 100 Mb upload.
Check Sky →
Choose Vodafone if
You want a bill you can leave alone — Vodafone’s 500 Mb settles at €40 and its 1 Gb at €50, against Sky’s €67.50 and €70 — or you want the gig, where Vodafone’s €35 promo and €50 landing beat Sky’s €40 then €70 on every month. SIRO is on the pole and you want 500/500 or 1000/1000 symmetry for uploads. You may want Super Wi-Fi mesh at €5 a pod or 4G backup, you already have Vodafone mobile (€10 a month off), and you accept a fixed €3.50 April bump inside the term.
Check Vodafone →Advertiser disclosure: we earn a commission when you buy through links on this page. This never affects our scores or the winner of each round.
