Reviews 3 min read

Cricket Wireless Review: AT&T's Generic Brand Worth It?

Cricket is AT&T's generic brand — same towers, same 5G, 4,500 stores, taxes-in pricing. Unbeatable for families at $25/line; overpriced for a single line. Here's the full breakdown.

Jean Gilles
Founder, ShopCellPlans
Published January 26, 2026
Updated May 18, 2026
A Cricket Wireless storefront and SIM kit
AT&T's prepaid arm: the landlord's house, not a tenant.

If you're paying $90+/month for AT&T postpaid, you're paying retail when a wholesale option exists. Cricket Wireless is AT&T's generic brand — the same product from the same factory, stripped of the bloat that inflates your bill. Wholly owned by AT&T, it runs the same towers and 5G infrastructure with 4,500+ retail stores. The question is whether it beats the smaller competitors for your situation.

Key takeaways
Cricket is wholly AT&T-owned: same towers, same 5G, premium priority on Supreme.
4 lines for $100 ($25/line) is the best AT&T-network family deal around.
Activate online to skip the $25 fee; the $25 upgrade fee is harder to dodge.
Single users should look at Visible ($25–35, Verizon) or Mint ($15–30, T-Mobile) first.

Quick answer

Cricket is worth it for families and AT&T-area users who want reliable coverage with retail support. It's pricier than Visible or Mint for single users, but unbeatable for 3–4 line families on AT&T's network at $25/line. Best plan overall: Supreme Unlimited, $55/mo with AutoPay. Best family value: Select Unlimited, 4 lines for $100 total.

The three plans

  • Supreme Unlimited: $55/mo AutoPay: premium priority data (QCI 8, same as AT&T postpaid — no slowdown in crowds), 50GB hotspot, Max (with ads) and 150GB cloud storage included.
  • Smart Unlimited: $45/mo AutoPay: the budget unlimited; deprioritized (QCI 9) when towers are busy, 15GB hotspot, no Max.
  • Select Unlimited: $40 single line, $100 for 4 lines: the switcher special. No hotspot, no perks: pure talk, text, and data at $25/line.
Taxes included
The price you see is the price you pay: $55 means $55.00. That alone beats most prepaid carriers' quoted-plus-fees pricing.

Coverage and speeds

Full AT&T network access on every plan, including low-band 5G and 5G+ (C-Band) in major cities. AT&T is strongest in the South, parts of the Midwest, rural FirstNet areas, and major metros; weaker in some Northeast pockets, the Pacific Northwest, and mountain regions where Verizon dominates. Check the coverage map at your address first — a $55 plan that drops calls at home saves nothing. Video streams at 480p by default; only Supreme can unlock HD.

The fees to know about

Activate online and the $25 activation fee disappears. That's the workaround, and online-only phone deals come with it. The more frustrating charge is the $25 upgrade fee, which hits existing customers even when buying a phone online. Switcher deals are strong: free Moto G/Galaxy A phones on Supreme or Smart, iPhones from $49.99, and an online "3 months at $15/mo" trial promo.

How Cricket compares

  • vs Visible (Verizon's Cricket): Visible+ at $35 undercuts Supreme with 50GB priority + unlimited hotspot: the pick in Verizon-strong areas.
  • vs Mint Mobile: ~$30/mo unlimited (annual prepay) or $15 for 5GB on T-Mobile: the single-user budget winner.
  • vs Twigby: ~$30 unlimited on Verizon: the rural-Verizon value play.
  • vs Red Pocket: ~$30 on your choice of network: AT&T coverage without retail support.

Cricket bridges the gap between the wild west of cheap prepaid and the expensive stability of a major carrier.

— ShopCellPlans verdict

Verdict

Get Cricket if you have 3+ lines, want physical stores, live where AT&T dominates, or want premium-priority data without postpaid. Skip it if you're a single user (Visible or Mint deliver more for less), don't need stores, want HD/4K streaming, or travel internationally beyond Mexico and Canada: Cricket's international perks stop there.

Which AT&T carrier fits you?

We rank every carrier on AT&T's towers (Cricket, Boost, AT&T Prepaid, AirVoice, and Red Pocket) by price and priority.

Best AT&T MVNOs →
Cricket Wireless plans

AT&T’s network with taxes included, no credit check, and thousands of stores.

See Cricket Wireless plans →

Frequently asked questions

Is Cricket basically AT&T? +
Cricket is owned by AT&T and uses its network, but it's a prepaid brand with its own plans and lower data priority than AT&T postpaid.
Can I try Cricket for free? +
Yes. The tryCricket app gives you a 14-day trial with 3GB of data, without switching your number.
Is Cricket Wireless the same as AT&T? +
Mostly. Coverage and call quality are identical. The difference is congestion priority: Supreme matches AT&T postpaid (QCI 8); Smart and Select are deprioritized (QCI 9) when towers are busy.
Why is video capped at 480p? +
Network capacity management. Supreme users can disable the cap for HD; Smart and Select users are stuck with SD.
Can I avoid the $25 activation fee? +
Yes: activate online instead of in-store. The $25 upgrade fee for existing customers applies even online, which is the more annoying one.
Can I keep my number? +
Yes: standard porting with your old account number and transfer PIN, typically completing in 1–24 hours.

Keep reading

All guides
A woman on a sofa with a laptop, holding her phone and looking away Guides Grandfathered AT&T unlimited Worth keeping? 7 min read Guide Best AT&T MVNOs Cricket vs the rest of the blue network Guide Visible Plus review Verizon's answer to Cricket An AT&T Prepaid SIM kit next to a phone Reviews Best AT&T prepaid plans AT&T's own no-contract lineup 8 min read
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Jean Gilles
About the author

Jean writes ShopCellPlans' reviews. He compares carrier plans using each carrier's own published prices, its FCC broadband labels and reporting from named outlets, and ranks them on the bill you actually get, taxes and fees included, not the price on the ad.

#Cricket Wireless #AT&T #Family plans #Prepaid