The money is the second split. Vodafone’s 1 Gb is €35 for six months on a 24-month term (€45 on 12), then a standing €50 with no cliff when the contract ends; 500 Mb is €25→€40; 2 Gb is €55→€70. Virgin’s 500 Mb and 1 Gb are both €35 for 12 months, then €70 and €80; 2 Gb is €55→€90; the new 5 Gb fibre tier is €65→€100. On the gig the two intros match for six months; then Virgin is €15 a month cheaper until month 12 and €30 a month dearer every month after that. Over 24 months that is €1,110 Vodafone against €1,380 Virgin — before either provider’s April letter. Vodafone’s is a fixed €3.50 per April on broadband contracts signed since October 2024; Virgin has used in-contract rises before and now advertises a price lock for the minimum term on new sign-ups, so read the one-pager on the day you order.
We score Vodafone 9.3 — our overall number one — and Virgin 8.8. Virgin’s two points of advantage are speed (9.5 vs 9.1) and a cheaper months seven to twelve. Vodafone wins value, contract, coverage, service and — the bit the tiles never show — upload. If the Eircode has SIRO, take Vodafone’s gig and do not look back. If it is Open Eir FTTH only, Vodafone still wins on the two-year bill, with 200 Mb up on the gig against Virgin’s 100. Virgin is the pick when its cable is the only fast wire at the door, or when you are genuinely going to leave at month twelve. Ranking: best broadband for Ireland. Networks at your address: check 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.
| Vodafone | Virgin Media | |
|---|---|---|
| Our score | 9.3 | 8.8 |
| Intro from | €25 | €35 |
| Thereafter from | €40 | €70 |
| Headline speed | 1000 Mb | 1000 Mb |
| Annual rise | Yes | Yes |
| Networks | Open Eir FTTH, Open Eir FTTC, SIRO, NBI, 5G home | Virgin cable, Virgin fibre, SIRO, NBI |
| TV bundle | Yes | Yes |
Virgin’s €35 year vs Vodafone’s €35 that settles at €50
Put the two gigs side by side and the shape is obvious. Virgin: €35 × 12, then €80. Vodafone on 24 months: €35 × 6, then €50 for good (the 12-month plan is €45 × 6 then €50). Year one favours Virgin by €90. Year two favours Vodafone by €360. On a 24-month horizon — which is how long most people actually stay before they get round to switching — Vodafone’s 1 Gb comes to €1,110 and Virgin’s to €1,380, and Vodafone has been delivering twice to ten times the upload the whole way through. On 500 Mb Virgin is €35→€70 and Vodafone €25→€40: €870 against €1,260 over two years. Virgin prices 500 Mb and 1 Gb the same, so take the gig there; Vodafone charges €10 more for it, which on SIRO buys 1,000 Mb up.
The 2 Gb tier is where Vodafone’s pricing is quietly the better product. Both start at €55. Vodafone’s 2 Gb on SIRO is 2,000/2,000 and lands on €70; Virgin’s 2 Gb is a fibre-only product on its overbuilt streets, lists 200 Mb up and lands on €90. Same sticker, €20 apart thereafter, wildly different upload. Neither has a setup fee on the plans we list — Virgin quotes a €30 activation charge in its small print and waives it on current promotions, so check the order summary rather than assuming. Value scores: Vodafone 9.3, Virgin 8.2. Board of intros: best broadband deals.
Wholesale fibre on the pole vs Virgin’s private cable — and what the overbuild changes
Nothing here is shared. Vodafone retails Open Eir FTTH, SIRO, NBI and 5G home; it cannot touch Virgin’s plant. Virgin retails Virgin cable (DOCSIS over coax, the classic red-van product) and, in the streets it has rebuilt, Virgin fibre — its own XGS-PON, not Open Eir and not SIRO — plus, since 2022 and 2024, resold SIRO and NBI at some addresses (not priced here). That matters for the switch: moving between Vodafone and Virgin’s own network is a new connection on a different physical line, not a same-socket retailer migration. There is no “keep my line” option — unless Virgin is quoting you a resold SIRO or NBI line, in which case it is an ordinary same-socket switch. See the four Irish networks explained.
Virgin’s fibre overbuild is the part most comparison pages miss. Virgin passed 550,000 premises with fibre by mid-2025 and said it would reach 1 million upgraded premises during 2026. On those streets Virgin is no longer selling coax: the 2 Gb and 5 Gb tiers are fibre-only, the upload ceilings rise, and the old contention argument weakens. Ask the Virgin agent which product your Eircode gets — “cable” or “full fibre” — because the answer changes the upload you will live with. SIRO, meanwhile, is already symmetrical everywhere it exists, which is why Vodafone is our SIRO pick rather than just a big-brand retailer.
Upload side by side: 1,000 Mb vs 100 Mb — and a few milliseconds for gamers
Download is a draw on paper: both sell 500 Mb, 1 Gb and 2 Gb, and Virgin adds 5 Gb on its fibre streets. Upload is not. Vodafone 1 Gb on SIRO: 1,000 Mb up. Vodafone 1 Gb on Open Eir FTTH: 200 Mb up (500 Mb is 100 up). Virgin 1 Gb: 100 Mb up (500 Mb is 50 up); Virgin 2 Gb and 5 Gb: 200 Mb up. Translate that: a 50 GB photo library to the cloud takes around seven minutes on SIRO gig, about half an hour on Open Eir gig, and over an hour on Virgin’s gig. Two people on video calls while a laptop backs up is routine on either fibre product and a squeeze on Virgin’s 500 Mb plan. That is why we send every home worker to the WFH ranking before they sign a cable contract. Virgin scores 9.5 on speed because its download ceiling is the highest in an urban house; Vodafone scores 9.1 because its speed is the same in both directions.
For gaming the gap is smaller but real. DOCSIS cable schedules upstream traffic in time slots, so cable latency is typically a few milliseconds higher and a little more variable than a passive fibre line, especially at peak evening hours on a busy segment. Neither is a problem for a casual player; a competitive one on a 1 Gb Virgin cable plan will usually see a slightly higher and jumpier ping than the same person on SIRO or Open Eir FTTH. Virgin fibre streets close most of that gap. Full breakdown: best broadband for gaming. If you are not seeing the advertised number on either: not getting advertised speed.
Vodafone’s fixed €3.50 April vs Virgin’s €35-to-€80 cliff
Vodafone’s rise is published and flat: broadband contracts signed or renewed since 16 October 2024 go up by €3.50 a month each April (€4.50 with TV); older contracts remain CPI+3%, which produced 5.8% in April 2026. Vodafone states plainly that the adjustment does not give you a penalty-free exit. So on a 24-month gig you should budget €35 for six months, €50 from month seven, €53.50 from the first April and €57 from the second — and nothing else when the contract ends, because €50 is the standing price, not a promo. Contract score: 8.7.
Virgin’s problem is not the April letter — it is the cliff. €35 to €80 on the gig is a 129% jump at month thirteen, and Virgin has used in-contract increases on top in previous years. Its August 2026 marketing leans on a price lock for the minimum term for new customers, which is welcome and honest as far as it goes, but it locks the intro, not the thereafter. Contract score: 7.6. Twelve-month Virgin is only a good deal if you treat month eleven as a hard deadline. Exit maths for both: early termination fees; the wider picture: April price rises.
Can you get both at one address — and what happens to the old line when you switch?
Yes, plenty of Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford estates are passed by Virgin coax and Open Eir FTTH or SIRO. That overlap is the only place this page is a live decision. Coverage scores tell the national story: Vodafone 8.8 (Open Eir almost everywhere, SIRO in towns, NBI in the countryside, 5G as a stopgap), Virgin 6.8 (urban and suburban, or absent). If you are rural, stop reading and go to best rural broadband — Virgin is not coming.
Switching between them is a new install, not a transfer, whenever Virgin’s own cable or fibre is the destination. Vodafone to Virgin: a Virgin technician (or self-install where the coax is already in the wall) connects the Hub, and your Vodafone fibre ONT stays on the wall, dead, until you cancel with 30 days’ notice. Virgin to Vodafone: an Open Eir or SIRO crew runs fibre to an ONT — a half-day visit, typically one to three weeks out in a passed estate — and the Virgin coax simply goes idle; Virgin wants its Hub back. Because the lines are independent, you can overlap them for a week and only cancel the old one once the new one works, which is the safest way to do this switch. Do not cancel Virgin first. Full process: how to switch broadband. Moving: moving house.
The two-way household vs the one-year download chaser
Vodafone is for the house where the internet goes out as well as in. Remote workers, anyone paying for cloud backup, creators, Plex and NAS owners, households with two gamers, students uploading coursework at 11pm. It is also for people who cannot be bothered to renegotiate every twelve months: €50 standing on the gig (€40 on 500 Mb) is a bill you can ignore for years. SIRO addresses are the no-brainer; Open Eir FTTH addresses are still a clear win on year two. Families: best broadband for families.
Virgin is for the Netflix-and-PlayStation-downloads house on a passed street, especially where Open Eir is still FTTC copper and Vodafone’s “fibre” quote would be 100 Mb. It is also the better fit if live sport and a set-top box in one bill is the brief — Virgin’s 1 Gb + Loaded TV is around €50 intro for 12 months before a thereafter well north of €100, with Sky Sports as a €7.50 add-on that climbs to about €45. Vodafone TV exists (an Apple TV 4K-based bundle from about €40 intro on the gig) but most streamers are better off with broadband only. Bundles compared: broadband and TV bundles. Students on a 12-month lease: best broadband for students.
Retention culture and routers: Virgin haggles, Vodafone answers the phone
Virgin has the stronger reputation for retention deals. Irish switchers on boards.ie and r/ireland report that ringing to cancel near month twelve often produces a loyalty price close to the new-customer intro — sometimes the same €30–€35 — because Virgin knows it cannot win you back once you are on somebody else’s fibre. Vodafone does haggle, but less generously; its standard play is to move you to whatever the current intro is on a fresh 12- or 24-month term. If you enjoy the annual phone call, Virgin rewards it. If you hate it, Vodafone’s lower thereafter means you lose less by not making it.
Day-to-day support is Vodafone’s: service score 8.6 against Virgin’s 7.8, and Switcher.ie named Vodafone Best Technical Support for 2026. Hardware is a wash. Vodafone ships a Wi-Fi 6 Gigabox-class router with the fibre plans; Virgin ships its Hub (Hub 5 on 1 Gb and above in most areas, with a Wi-Fi guarantee and mesh pods on the gig tiers). Both are fine for a three-bed; both have a mesh add-on for the back bedroom. Neither needs a landline. Dead-spot fixes that work on either: Wi-Fi dead zones. Landline question: do I need a landline.
Which should you choose?
It comes down to the line at the house, then the bill. Here’s the quick way to decide.
Choose Vodafone if
SIRO or Open Eir FTTH is at the Eircode and you send data as well as receive it — video calls, cloud backup, a NAS, two gamers, anyone uploading for a living. You want the gig at €35 then a standing €50 with 1,000 Mb up (SIRO) or 200 Mb up (Open Eir), rather than €35 then €80. You would rather a known €3.50 April rise than a 12-month teaser that more than doubles.
Check Vodafone →
Choose Virgin Media if
The house is on a Virgin-passed street and Open Eir is FTTC copper or nothing. Raw download for a year at €35 is the job, nobody in the house uploads for a living, and you are organised enough to ring retentions or switch before the 1 Gb plan lands on €80. You want Virgin TV in the same bill, or the Virgin fibre overbuild has reached your road and the 2 Gb tier is live.
Check Virgin Media →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.
