What’s The Best Prepaid Plan In The Philippines? (2022)

What’s The Best Prepaid Plan In The Philippines? (2022)

Most people nowadays have postpaid plans that they pay off monthly, along with the promise of a shiny new phone every so often. However, there is still a considerable chunk of the population who prefer to be charged based on usage and don’t want to be tied down to a single network provider. For these people, we’ve compiled a comparison of prepaid promos between the triumvirate of local major telco players: Smart, Globe, and DITO to find the best prepaid plan in the Philippines.

To keep things fair, we’ve subdivided these into popular load amount increments to decide which provider dominates each segment. We’ll also limit ourselves to the presets set by the companies (no customizable deals) as these are within the scope of this study. Also outside the parameters of this article are network speeds, quality, portal exclusives (biggest deals on Maya and GCash), and expansiveness of service areas.

Our hunt for the best prepaid plan in the Philippines will only be measured by the value its inclusions provide.

* included here are the promos with Texts and Calls

Budgeting at PHP 20 to 30?

This section is for the extremely cash-strapped. At this point, you’re looking into squeezing the most out of every peso and access to the essential social media sites. Here’s what each telco gives you:

Smart: The cheapest prepaid option Smart offers in the Philippines is ALLNET30, for a price of 30 pesos. You’re getting unlimited calls and texts to all networks for a day, in addition to 30MB all-access mobile data.

Globe: This telco has 2 options at PHP 20 and 30 respectively, called GOUNLI20 and GOUNLI30. Both come with unlimited calls and texts, however the former provides 50MB of all-access data while the latter ups this number to 100MB. For those who don’t need to text or call, GOSURF15 gives you 100MB of mobile data with 30MB of additional Instagram usage for just PHP 15.

DITO: We’ve actually discussed the all-new DITO Data Sachets with the company’s Brand and Marketing Director Jasper Evangelista. Based on what we’ve seen so far, the brand only offers these increments in mobile data surfing with no call or text bundles. However, the difference in surfing capacity is immediately noticeable: DATA 10 and 20, costing PHP 10 and 20 respectively, allocate room for 1GB and 2GB of surfing. To add to that, the latter is valid for 3 days.

Winner: Globe or DITO, depending on what you need

What can you get for PHP 50?

We move up to the 50 peso range, another competitive section for prepaid users in the Philippines. The outstanding trend here is the two routes often taken by the telcos: more jam-packed content or longer promo periods. The competition for the best prepaid plan in the Philippines intensifies further.

Smart: At 50 pesos, Smart hands out two options: ALLNET50 with its 3 days of unlimited calls and texts to all networks packed with 500MB data, or 2GB of all-access surfing within the same timeframe.

Globe: This price point sees Globe’s GoUNLI50 doing the exact same thing as Smart’s ALLNET50, while their other service GOSURF50 forgoes unlimited calls for 2GB of data, 1GB of GoWiFi access at selected hubs, and an additional gigabyte that can be used for GoWATCH/Play/Listen/Travel/Work and the brand’s other subsidiaries. Go50 trims down GOSURF50’s additional perks for an extra 3GB, pushing up the total to 5GB. It keeps the unlimited texts though.

DITO: The same as with the previous one, DITO’s top-end data sachet is priced at PHP 50. It’s valid for a week and gives the user 5GB of data.

Winner: Globe undoubtedly has the best prepaid plan in the Philippines at PHP 50 due to variety of better options

Big ballers at PHP 90 to 100

Quite a number of people believe that the best deals reside in this tiny space between the double and triple digits. Companies have taken notice, which has turned this into an absolute warzone. Here’s what we have:

Smart: ALLNET makes a comeback with a 99 peso variant that includes unlimited calls and texts, along with 1GB of data, for a 7-day period. A POWERALL plan is also available for heavy data users, with 8GB for all sites, unlimited TikTok usage, and texts to all networks. This trumps their standard 6GB lone data offering at the same price.

They also have a well-thought-out promo called DOUBLE GIGA that provides 2GB of daily allocations to selected sites such as YouTube (14GB in total over 7 days), while also sticking in a general-use data cap.

Globe: A GoUNLI95 plan avails the user unlimited calls and texts to all networks in addition to 1GB of data, valid for a week. The popular GOPLUS99, meanwhile, lets go of the calls in favor of 8GB of data, unlimited texts, and bonus allocations to either watch 8GB worth of videos on Globe’s platforms or even one KonsultaMD medical consultation.

DITO: We finally get some participation from DITO in the form of the minimum Level Up prepaid plan. Users get 8GB of surfing alongside unlimited DITO to DITO calls, 300 minutes to other networks, unlimited texts, and a longevity of 30 days.

Winner: Smart for content creators and fans of specific sites, DITO for stretching out

* included here are the promos with Texts and Calls

Just a bit more at PHP 150

The previous segment was value-packed, but obvious compromises had to be done to minimize cost. Give the telco a bit more of your hard-earned money and this is what you get:

Smart: POWERALL for PHP 149 gains you 12GB of data, unlimited TikTok, and the freedom to call and text whoever you choose for the week. This cannibalizes its own ALL DATA+ promo that does the same but only gives you 6GB. If data’s all you need, you can lose the calls/texts to push the data cap to 20GB with GIGAPOWER.

Globe: The headliner here is GOPLUS149. Over the span of 7 days, users can consume unlimited texts and calls to all networks, 11GB of free-access data, and the GoPLUS signature bonus allocations to either watch 8GB worth of videos on Globe’s platforms or even one KonsultaMD medical consultation.

DITO: The company doesn’t have a prepaid promo competitor within this price bracket in the Philippines, but a theoretical simultaneous subscription of the previous PHP 50 and 99 services add up to 13GB of data, unlimited same-network calls, 30 minutes of outside calls, and unlimited texts. Keep in mind that the two promos have vastly different validity periods.

Winner: This is close, but Smart and Globe are a close tie here

King of the Hill at PHP 300

We’ll cap out at PHP 300 since most, if not all users, top up with these promos. Another reason behind this is the fact that most prepaid load cards back in the day had maximum values set in these denominations. Higher promos in the PHP 500-1000 range are often employed for the purposes of business.

Smart: As expected, there is a multitude of promos catering to this amount. ALLNET299 gives unlimited texts and calls for 30 days, along with 2GB of usable data. Internet lovers can also avail of an ALL DATA plan that shells out 24GB for a month. The DOUBLE GIGA promos make a comeback here too: 4GB of general-use data for the month alongside 2GB per day of access to either YouTube, NBA League Pass, GigaPlay, or Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. That’s a whopping 60GB within that timeframe!

Globe: The GoPLUS250 here is a 15-day promo that gifts the user 11GB of all-use data, the GoPLUS signature bonus allocations to either watch 15GB worth of videos on Globe’s platforms or even one KonsultaMD medical consultation. GoSURF299 is also an option, but we’re not sure 2GB of mobile data over 30 days is acceptable in 2022, regardless of freebies.

DITO: We finally get another increment of the DITO Level Up plan at PHP 299. Users get 31GB of surfing alongside unlimited DITO to DITO calls, 300 minutes to other networks, unlimited texts, and a longevity of 30 days.

Winner: Smart or DITO, depending on what you need

Best Prepaid Plan Philippines (2022)

  • Php 20-30: Tie between Globe and DITO
  • Php 50: Globe
  • Php 90 – 100: Smart and DITO
  • Php 150: Globe and Smart
  • Php 300: DITO

There we have it, a full-blown yet concise comparison of promos in the Philippines to find the best prepaid plan at each of the most popular price points. Based on the results per category, we can safely state that each telco is a winner in its own right. There surely is a lot of analysis placed into the local market that led to the construction of these bundles.

Hours of research went into narrowing down the vast array of promotions from each brand to level the playing field – stay tuned for other comparisons with changes in the parameters. With promos from GCash and Maya joining in on the fun, we’re sure that the battles will become far more intense. That’s even before we start delving into the legal disputes these rivals have imposed upon each other in recent weeks.

That’s not an issue since we, as consumers, have all to gain in these heated battles.

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