CenturyLink vs. Cox

Compare Cox vs. CenturyLink head to head

We think CenturyLink is the clear winner between these two providers because it gives you a great deal on fiber service and doesn’t monkey around with steep price hikes or excessive extra fees like Cox does.

However, CenturyLink’s fiber service is in short supply—if you can only get DSL from CenturyLink, then one of Cox’s cable plans may be the better bet since cable is much faster and more reliable than DSL. Cox is also the way to go if you want to bundle your internet with TV, and it gets much better ratings for customer service than CenturyLink.

Pros and cons: Cox vs. CenturyLink

Jump to: Plans and pricing | Extra fees | Customer ratings | Bundles | Internet connection types | Data caps | Contracts | Installation | Availability | FAQ

Jump to:

• Plans and pricing
• Extra fees
• Customer ratings
• Bundles
• Internet connection types
• Data caps
• Contracts
• Installation
• Availability
• FAQ

Plans and pricing: Cox vs. CenturyLink

Cox plans and pricing

Fast speeds and wide availability—but slow uploads and big price hikes

Cox has great prices (at least up front) and a lot of options for customers to pick from. The best plans are probably the fastest ones, Go Even Faster and Go Super Fast. Cox also offers a prepaid plan called StraightUp Internet, which we like because it doesn’t require an annual term agreement and comes with a modem as part of the monthly fee.

The speeds you’ll get on a Cox plan range from a modest 100 Mbps all the way up to 1,000 Mbps. The 100 Mbps Go Fast plan is relatively cheap up front, but we’re not so keen on the big price hikes that come after 12 months of service. Depending on the plan you have, your bill could go up significantly or even double in price after 12 months of service. That might put some of the faster plans out of reach for some users, while the budget plans aren’t as plum of a deal after a year.

Cox (whose parent company is cable TV provider Cox Communications) also charges some extra fees, not all of which you’ll have to deal with from CenturyLink. Cox’s internet plans come with annual contracts. If you cancel your plan before the year is up, you’ll have to pay $10 for every month left on your bill. You can waive the term agreement, but it will cost you $10 more per month on your bill.

CenturyLink plans and pricing

Fiber firepower or dozing DSL—take your pick

CenturyLink Fiber Internet delivers superb speeds at an unbeatable price—if it’s available in your area, then we say go for it. Costing $40 per month less than Cox’s gigabit plan, it matches Cox on speed and goes one further by giving you symmetrical upload speeds, which is perfect for backing up files to the cloud, spending time on Zoom, and posting to social media.

The only drawback to CenturyLink’s fiber plan is that it has much lower availability compared to Cox. And CenturyLink’s other option, Simply Unlimited Internet, isn’t quite as rosy—a straightforward DSL plan, it gives you unlimited data but relatively sluggish speeds. Technically a DSL connection can hit 100 Mbps, but what you can get depends on what’s available in your area, which could be much slower. The price also isn’t the best considering the technical limitations, although it’s more or less similar to Cox’s budget-tier plans.

Extra fees: Cox vs. CenturyLink

Data as of 6/28/2022. Offers and availability may vary by location and are subject to change.

Cox and CenturyLink both charge fairly standard fees. Cox’s rental modem is cheaper than CenturyLink’s. But Cox also has early termination fees for customers who cancel an internet plan before their annual term agreement is up.

Customer ratings: Cox vs. CenturyLink

Cox has much better ratings than CenturyLink in our annual customer satisfaction survey. Out of 12 providers examined, Cox comes in third place for overall satisfaction and also ranks towards the top for speed, reliability, and customer service. Cox is especially well known for its customer service, so it’s no surprise that it performs well in that category. If you’re having any issues with Cox’s service, you can call its 24/7 tech support service or consult Cox’s live chat.

CenturyLink comes in last for overall satisfaction and most other categories. However, it’s worth noting that CenturyLink’s fiber customers actually seem quite pleased—fiber customers we surveyed gave CenturyLink a high score of 3.7 for reliability. An impressive 56% of CenturyLink’s customers also told us in our survey that they haven’t dealt with any unexpected price hikes or hidden fees.

Best TV and internet bundles

CenturyLink doesn’t offer any bundle deals on internet and TV service. But Cox offers some solid bundles through its cable TV service, Cox Contour . Bundles give you a bit of a discount on TV and internet by letting you combine them. The cheapest Cox bundle gets you 100 Mbps of internet speed and 75 channels, but you have Cox bundling options that go up to 1,000 Mbps and 250 channels.

Internet types: Cox vs. CenturyLink

Cox has cable internet, which runs over the same coaxial copper wiring as a cable TV network. Cable is fast, reliable, and widely available—our only quibble is that it doesn’t give you gigabit upload speeds like you can get with fiber.

CenturyLink delivers both DSL and fiber internet. Fiber-optic internet is by far the best internet around, since it can hit the fastest speeds possible and is impervious to the kinds of electromagnetic interference that can hamper cable and DSL lines. It has a much lower availability nationwide, but hopefully that changes in the coming years.

DSL is an old-school type of internet that gives you a connection over the copper wiring of your landline phone network. It tops out at 100 Mbps—a fraction of the speed you can get over cable or fiber—so it’s best if you have minimal internet needs and if you don’t share your Wi-Fi with more than a few others in your household.

Data caps: Cox vs. CenturyLink

Cox has a 1.25 TB cap on all of its internet plans. That’s a pretty generous cap—it will be just fine for most people, but you’ll need to be more budget-conscious of your data use if you live with a lot of people and like to stream video in 4K. The more users on your Wi-Fi, the faster you’ll burn through data, and overage charges can really add up.

CenturyLink, on the other hand, has no data caps—yay! That means you can spend all the time you want attending Zoom meetings, streaming movies and TV shows, and downloading files from your email. No need to worry about network slowdowns or overage charges.

Contracts: Cox vs. CenturyLink

Data as of 6/28/2022. Offers and availability may vary by location and are subject to change.

CenturyLink has month-to-month contracts with annual term agreements. That means you can cancel your internet any time and you won’t have to pay an early termination fee, the dreaded fee that goes up with each month you have left on your contract.

Cox lets you choose between getting a package with an annual contract or without. If you cancel early on a plan with a contract, you’re on the hook for $10 for each month you have left in the agreement. If you pick a plan with no annual contract, well, you pay $10 extra per month on your bill. You’re not gaining much that way, so you may as well just sign up for the plan with the annual contract.

Installation: Cox vs. CenturyLink

Data as of 6/28/2022. Offers and availability may vary by location and are subject to change.

The official price for professional installation from CenturyLink is $99—but lately the internet provider has been offering installation free of charge, with no extra charges added to your bill. However, you may need to pay an additional $85 to install a phone jack for DSL service if you don’t already have one in your house.

Cox charges $100 for professional installation, which means a technician will come over to your home and set everything up. You can save money by installing your new cable setup yourself—an Easy Connect self-install kit doesn’t cost anything extra.

Availability: Cox vs. CenturyLink

Cox is available in 29 states, and you can find CenturyLink in 36 states. CenturyLink has a much bigger US network overall—more than twice the size of Cox’s service footprint. But there’s a lot of overlap between the two providers, and the best way to figure out availability where you live is by using our zip code tool below.

Final call: Cox vs. CenturyLink

The best way in this race is with CenturyLink’s fiber internet plan, which gives you gigabit speeds at a much more affordable price compared to Cox. You also get much faster upload speeds on that plan, along with unlimited data and no annual contract requirement.

But fiber isn’t available everywhere, and CenturyLink’s DSL plan is a lot slower than what you can get from Cox. Internet customers who need robust speeds for work or entertainment (or both) would be wise to go with Cox if fiber isn’t available. Cox is also the best option if you want internet and TV in one bundle package—and its excellent customer service ratings mean it’s a solid bet for folks who aren’t super tech-oriented.

CenturyLink’s DSL plan isn’t the fastest thing out there, but it has some strengths. You won’t need to sign up for an annual contract, and you’ll get all the data you need. We recommend the DSL plan only if you can get 25 Mbps speeds or faster in your area.

View Cox Plans

Methodology

Our HighSpeedInternet.com editorial team bases our analyses on customer input from our annual customer satisfaction survey, results from our speed test tool, and proprietary internet provider data on speeds and pricing. To strengthen our research, we look closely at provider contracts to get hard-to-find information on price hikes, data caps, and extra fees, and we keep tabs on the latest news reports and online reviews. When applicable, we also rely on our personal experiences testing these services.

FAQ about Cox vs. CenturyLink

What’s the best router for Cox and CenturyLink?

We think the Google Nest Wi-Fi System is the best router for a Cox or CenturyLink internet plan. It doesn’t cost much but supports fast speeds and gives you mesh networking for a wide signal—making it ideal for larger homes and even getting Wi-Fi in your backyard.

There are all sorts of routers available on the market, and many have different strengths when it comes to pricing, speed capability, and extra features. Look over our lists of the best routers to see what works best for you:

• Best Wi-Fi Routers
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• Best Long-Range Routers
• Best Routers for Online Gaming

Amazon.com Price (as of 11/17/2021 10:15 MST). See full disclaimer.

More about Cox and CenturyLink

• Best Cable Modems for Xfinity, Spectrum, Cox, and More
• How to Self-Install Cox
• Your Guide to CenturyLink Installation
• How Much Internet Speed Do You Need to Work from Home
• Which Internet Service Providers Have Data Caps?

Disclaimer

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