The Best Landline Services for Seniors in 2025

In addition to Consumer Cellular’s cellular plans, the company offers affordable home phone service. For $20 per month, you can pair a home phone with the company’s nationwide cellular network, and no long-term contracts are required.

To set up Consumer Cellular’s home phone service, you must purchase their Verve Home Phone Base ($89, or $79 refurbished) and pair it with a $20-per-month unlimited talk and text plan. Since the base doesn’t include its own phone, you’ll need to plug in your own.

The Verve Home Phone Base offers Consumer Cellular plan features for your home. It even allows you to keep your existing number. The service includes voicemail, caller ID and conference calling at no extra cost. Plus, it has a backup battery for power outages.

The primary downside to Consumer Cellular is its reliance on cellular service, as opposed to a landline or the internet (as with other providers on this list). That means you’d need mobile service from Consumer Cellular to use the home phone service. Because of this — or unless you’re unhappy with your current provider — we wouldn’t recommend this service in rural areas.

For people who live in areas with adequate cellular coverage, Consumer Cellular offers one of the best overall values for home phone service.

To learn more about the provider, read our full Consumer Cellular review.

Xfinity offers one of the most affordable landline services, starting at $20 a month, with month-to-month contracts. It’s widely available and also provides TV, internet, cell phones and home security. I recommend it for strong internet connections, but your experience with Xfinity internet stability, which can affect VoIP, may vary depending on location.

Xfinity offers unlimited nationwide calling for $20 a month, including international calls to over 90 countries. Unlimited international calling is an additional $20 a month, totaling $40. An internet connection and voice-compatible modem and router are required.

As an Xfinity internet customer, I pay $76.20 a month for the Superfast plan (800 Mbps download and 20 Mbps upload). Adding TV costs an extra $15, $50 or $60 a month with annual TV contracts, while internet and phone are month to month.

Voice, a VoIP home phone service, includes caller ID (with Xfinity Digital TV and Internet); long distance (with Xfinity Voice Unlimited); speed dialing to 911, 988, 611 or 711; three-way calling; unlimited local calling; and international calling to over 90 countries.

Xfinity’s low prices may seem great, but you must already have an internet connection and a voice-compatible router and modem to use the feature. Because it requires an internet connection, your home phone won’t work during a power outage, which could be an issue if you have an emergency and need to contact 911.

Xfinity offers an affordable and reliable home phone service for $20 a month, which is ideal for people also seeking internet, mobile, TV or home security.

To learn more about the provider, read our review of Xfinity landline.

Vonage is the most affordable carrier on this list, starting at $9.99 per month, but it requires high-speed internet. Using VoIP, Vonage sends voices digitally via an internet-connected phone. The protocol allows for low prices, as long as you already have dependable high-speed internet.

Vonage offers unlimited calling in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Puerto Rico for $9.99 per month. An additional $5 a month provides unlimited calls to over 60 more countries with the World Prime plan.

Vonage’s VoIP offers numerous features beyond traditional landlines, whether you choose a domestic or international plan.

Call filter: In December 2023, the average U.S. adult received 17 spam calls, according to the most recent data from Robokiller.1 Vonage allows you to block spam calls, send them to voicemail or continue receiving them.

Enhanced call forwarding: You can forward calls to your cell phone or any other number when you’re away, and callers won’t know you’re not in the office.

SimulRing: Waiting for an important phone call? You can have your calls ring up to five additional phones simultaneously, including other landlines, smartphones or cellphones.

Vonage Extensions app: Want to be able to answer your landline even if you’re not home? With the Vonage app, you can use your smartphone as your home phone and still get the same caller ID.

Vonage does not offer TV or internet bundles, so it’s not a great choice if you’re looking to combine those services under one roof. Instead, it offers home phone services only. If you want a bundle, check out a larger provider such as Verizon or Xfinity.

If you already have an internet connection, Vonage will be the most affordable option. In our experience, Vonage service is highly reliable.

With flexible monthly contracts, long-distance options and unlimited local calling, AT&T provides all the features you’d want in a landline. That differs from a home phone that uses VoIP and requires internet service. In each of our test calls, AT&T’s service reliably connected us with crystal-clear audio.

AT&T offers all the features you could want, but its pricing is higher than most, starting at $58 per month for the Traditional Plan and $72 per month for the Complete Choice Enhanced Plan.

The Complete Choice Enhanced Plan provides essential features such as caller ID, speed dialing and three-way calling. With those features, you can see who’s calling before you answer, quickly dial your favorite contacts and connect with two other people on a single call.

I found the calls to be clear, and one of the best parts is that the phone worked even when my Wi-Fi went out, which isn’t the case for VoIP options like Vonage.

With prices starting at $58 a month, AT&T is the most expensive option on this list. Although landlines always cost more than VoIP, there are cheaper options for a landline, such as Community Phone, which starts at $36 per month.

AT&T may be a bit expensive, but landline service is more expensive than VoIP and AT&T provides reliable services with all of the features you’d want from a landline. AT&T also offers landline service as a stand-alone product, whereas Verizon requires you to bundle a home phone with additional services.

To learn more about the provider, read our full AT&T landline review.

If you’re looking to use your landline for international calls, you’ll appreciate that all of CenturyLink’s plans include international calling minutes and the entire monthly cost will be $30. You’ll get 500 international voice calling minutes per billing cycle, as well as unlimited calling to the U.S., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

CenturyLink’s sole home phone option is Connected Voice Basic, which costs $30 a month. The plan requires an IP phone, which costs an additional $179, and a CenturyLink internet connection, which generally costs $50 per month.

CenturyLink Connected Voice Basic includes caller ID, call waiting, call forwarding, telemarketer blocking and E911. The last feature is particularly useful with VoIP services, because it allows 911 operators to track your location.

CenturyLink’s service worked well in our tests, but it doesn’t offer much for its extra costs, especially for people who primarily make domestic calls.

If international calling is an essential part of your home phone service, then CenturyLink will likely be worth the higher cost of entry.

To learn more about CenturyLink, read our full CenturyLink landline review.

Community Phone offers home phone service in all 50 states. Starting at $36 per month when you pay on an annual basis, it’s one of the most affordable options around.

Community Phone plans start at $39 per month for the Basic plan. The more advanced plan, Community Phone +, costs $69 per month and includes extra features such as live call transferring and no-fee equipment.

I chose the Basic plan and had to pay $99 for equipment, plus about $18 for shipping and handling. With taxes and fees, my monthly costs were around $52, but I could have saved by signing up for a year. Note that with the higher-level plan, the $99 fee is waived.

Some features I appreciated from Community Phone were smart call handling and spam call protection. With smart call handling, I had my landline ring on my cell phone so I could answer my home phone even when I ran out to do errands. That ensured that I didn’t miss any important phone calls, like the cable company I had been trying to reach for hours. Community Phone also blocked spam calls from reaching my phone, which is a godsend to anyone who’s ever picked up the phone to hear nothing but heavy breathing.

Community Phone is not the most expensive option on this list (that would be AT&T or Verizon), but it’s certainly not as cheap as providers such as Xfinity and Vonage, two VoIP providers.

If you don’t have internet and aren’t planning to get it, Community Phone is a great option that’s available nationwide.

If you need a landline, internet, TV and more, you can house everything under Verizon. You’ll have to pick out an internet or TV plan to get a landline from Verizon, so look elsewhere if a landline is all you want. As someone who has had Verizon service for my cell phone for years, I was happy with the connection quality of Verizon’s landline.

>> Read more: Verizon Senior Phone Plans

In order to purchase a landline from Verizon, you’ll need to purchase an internet plan, TV plan or both. The costs for internet service range from $49.99 to $89.99 per month, while TV plans range from $95 to $139 per month.

The landline plan itself, Fios Home Phone, costs $30 a month. Note that the plan includes international calls to one country of your choice. If you want more international calling, however, you can pay anywhere from $5 to $15 a month for access to up to 140 countries.

Fios Digital Voice offers features such as smartphone integration for voicemails and call logs, free in-network calls to other Verizon/Fios Digital Voice customers, and outgoing caller ID blocking for privacy.

With Verizon, there’s no way to buy the $30-per-month landline service independently. Instead, I was forced to buy either an internet or a TV package, which increased costs significantly. If you’re happy with your internet and TV, purchasing landline services from Verizon may be more complicated (and expensive) than necessary. Still, it’s worth a price comparison to find out.

Verizon may be a great option if you want internet or TV in addition to a landline, but it’s not a great option if you want a landline only or you don’t want internet.

To learn more about the provider, read our full rundown of Verizon landline services.