There’s nothing more enjoyable than picking out a monthly cellphone plan in Canada—wait, what? Okay, maybe it’s not really fun at all but the following comparison tool from CelAgora will make things much, much easier.
The website touts itself as “free and independent Canadian mobile plan comparison tool” to help you save time and money. All you have to do is set your province, preferred voice minutes, required data and then include the usual options such as unlimited text, call display, voicemail, unlimited evenings, etc.
The providers list is extensive as it includes the Big 3 and their ‘discount brands’ along with newer entrants and regional carriers.
Below is an example search we just did for a plan with 100 minutes and 2GB of data in BC:
As you can see information is laid out in an easy to digest manner. Now let’s take a look at that exact same query but for Quebec residents, which happen to have a fourth wireless competitor (Videotron) competing against the Big 3:
It’s interesting how prices are lower with more data when regional competition is alive and well.
We spoke with the creators of CelAgora, Nadir Marcos and Guillaume Marcade from Montreal, who told us more about the site. CelAgora is updated at least once per week but despite the automated checking of plan updates and pricing, manual processing is still involved, specifically steps to validate the changes.
Marcos tells us his site combines plans with add-ons and other packages in as many ways as possible. These calculations take over six hours to analyze all the combinations with his quad-core i7 machine. He tells us the site will be updated today to reflect recent $5/month price increases by the Big 3.
The motivation behind the creation of the comparison tool? Marcos says he wants to “increase transparency and influence Canadian telecoms to up their game and deliver better value to Canadian consumers.”
Let us know how CelAgora’s comparison tool works for you. You can try it out here.
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It’s a little glitchy… Ontario for 100min, 3GB with everything checked produced $82.59.999999999999 for Virgin. Plus it showed Sasktel. It also showed Bell (at $54) being $31 cheaper than Rogers and $36 cheaper than Telus, which seems hard to believe (but I didn’t check… maybe they have a special on right now?). Also – selecting your province is not intuitive (it’s practically hidden).
But other than that… BRAVO on the effort! This is a VERY cool concept. If it gets popular, it may actually fulfill it’s other purpose of exposing the carriers’ pricing at a glance, and consequently “may” create better competition (or it may just cause the big 3 to huddle together to get every MORE uniform in their price gauging).
Problem solved! thanks for the comment.
Hi Al,
Thanks for the info! I’ll correct that ASAP
Nadir
I’m also getting a Bell plan for $54 which includes 3Gb of data but their site only lists 500mb included. I had my hopes up for a second.
I’ve been looking for a site exactly like this to compare plans. Thanks for this.
Problem solved! thanks for pointing it out!
Hi Micrich3,
Sorry for getting your hopes up, you’re right there is an error! Ill look into it.
Resolved
Hi again,
That 54$ Bell deal is only in Quebec… Correction are made and will be live very soon.
Great idea! However couple of things: 1) It defaults to Quebec but I’m in Ontario 2) when i select the following voice 50 min, data 500MB options: voicemail, i own unlocked phone; and all providers, as 2nd result it gives me a $35.10 plan from koodo which says has 300min, and 3GB of data, and as far as I can see that plan does not exist on koodo’s website
Hi,
For the default province issue, thanks for pointing it out. We will add an API that tell us in what province you are…
For the 3 GB problem, it’s solved…
Nadir
Great idea and definitely fills a need. I’d love to see the ‘effective pricing’ date beside each carrier or some other method of easily confirming that the comparison data is not stale.
Good point! Will do!
Thanks for your comments! Any feature request, nice to have, comment and idea are greatly welcome. Do not hesitate.!
So I already am on the cheapest plan with wind. There is still very little competition still. I would consider Rogers if I could get a plan with my unlocked unlocked iPhone with 6GB of data for 50 dollars or less. Right now, I have unlimited data (albeit slower than LTE) for 30 bucks.
I don’t care about having unlimited or even a lot of voice minutes or unlimited texting. I want data.
I have shaw phone at home so I don’t need a lot of minutes on my cell phone but I’d like to be able to have a lot of data to tether with without having to pay 90 or more dollars per month. I’d like to be able to have data when visiting Ontario.
http://www.virginmobile.ca/en/support/monthly-charge-update.html?province=BC&geoResult=failed
Virgin Mobile has quietly announced a price increase on plans that from a year ago…
When was that doc published? How does it affect today’s prices? They don’t match up…
the plans they mentioned are those plan available in last year March, I was with Virgin on this plan, but they not notice us the change of the price, I was accidentally found out this website yesterday….
hey nadir
Can you add support for corporate plans, business plans, and bundles plans?
The website needs to be updated or it no longer functions properly.. I searched all the providers for 2gb of data and unlimited text and it came up with plans like: Fido; $55 for Unlimited text and 5gb of data, Bell; $55 for unlimited text and 2gb of data. The list on the website does not even come close to what the Providers actually offer. Fido has a $54 plan with unlimited text and 750mb of data and Bell has plans starting at $60 for 500mb of data. And yes, I changed my province to Ontario before conducting the search.
Please Fix
The comparison tool still includes Public Mobile, which is being folded into Telus.
As someone from Nova Scotia would you be able to add Eastlink into the running? I know they might not be as popular as videotron but I’d like to see how their prices compare. =D
why do I have to live in Quebec? of course I get royally screwed over when it comes to cell phone plans! This is ridiculous!