SIM-Only vs Contract SG 2026: Singtel, StarHub, M1, giga, SIMBA

Wei Lin is 31, rents a one-bedder near Tanjong Pagar, likes her three-year-old phone just fine, and has been paying a 200GB contract rate every month since the contract quietly ended in March because nobody at the telco called to say so. She is a composite, but her bill is not: the gap between a contract rate and the cheapest no-contract SIM-only line in Singapore is now S$25 to S$68 a month, as of September 2026, depending on which of the five brands you compare.

This is a five-way on SIM-only versus 24-month contract plans across Singtel, StarHub, M1, giga and SIMBA, built around five kinds of user rather than one "best plan". Prices are each brand's own published plan pages or a dated roundup, named in the sentence. Where a brand's current price could not be confirmed on its own site in September 2026 we say which month the figure comes from.

What does each brand charge as of September 2026?

Brand	Cheapest adult SIM-only	Mid tier	Top tier	Contract with phone?	Network
Singtel	Enhanced Lite S$35 list, S$24.50 for 12 months on a 12-month term, 300GB 5G+ plus 10GB Malaysia, 400 mins (Singtel, Sep 2026)	Enhanced Core S$40 list, S$36 promo, unlimited local plus 50GB Malaysia plus 4GB Asia, no contract	Priority Plus S$55 (S$49.50) unlimited Malaysia plus 13GB Asia; Priority Ultra S$80 (S$72) adds 18GB worldwide	Yes, 24 months	Singtel 5G+
StarHub	5G Lite S$22, 150GB 5G, 1,000 mins, 1GB roaming in 5 SEA destinations plus 1GB across 165 countries, no contract (TheSmartLocal, Jan 2026)	Not confirmed on StarHub's site in Sep 2026	Not confirmed	Yes, 24 months	StarHub 5G, 700MHz band added 1 Sep 2026
M1	Maxx S$12 SIM-only, 600GB, China roaming included (HardwareZone, 14 Aug 2026)	Bespoke SIM-only, no contract, data and minutes adjustable monthly, worldwide roaming (M1, Sep 2026)	Bespoke upper tiers (price not published on homepage)	Yes, 24 months Bespoke Contract	M1 5G
giga	Basic 4G S$10.19, 100GB, 300 mins, data rollover, up to 2GB Asia roaming, no contract (TheSmartLocal, Jan 2026)	5G tiers (price not confirmed Sep 2026)	None	No	StarHub network
SIMBA	SO50GB S$10 per 30 days, 500GB 5G, 500 mins, unlimited SMS, 3GB global plus 12GB APAC roaming (SIMBA, Sep 2026)	SO130GB S$12, 600GB, 8GB global plus 18GB APAC; SR15 S$15, 600GB, 8GB global plus 25GB APAC; SO80GB S$18, 600GB, 10GB global plus 30GB APAC	SuperRoam2030 S$20, 700GB, 12GB global plus 50GB APAC; SR80GB S$25, 800GB, 15GB global plus 80GB APAC	No	SIMBA 5G

Seniors: Singtel Seniors SIM Only S$12 list, S$6 promo, 340GB plus 6GB Malaysia, age 60 and up (Singtel, Sep 2026); StarHub 5G Senior S$12 (TheSmartLocal, Jan 2026); SIMBA Seniors S$5, 500GB (SIMBA, Sep 2026). SIMBA also sells 90-day bundles at S$30 (SO130GB) and S$39 (SR15), each S$6 cheaper than three monthly cycles, and rolls unused data and minutes over for up to six cycles.

One structural note before the personas. In August 2026 StarHub completed its acquisition of MyRepublic's mobile business and moved those 4G subscribers off M1's network, as reported by HardwareZone on 22 August 2026, so the "StarHub family" now spans StarHub, giga and the former MyRepublic base. Singtel's sub-brand is GOMO; M1's is Maxx. SIMBA is the fourth network operator, the brand formerly known as TPG.

How does the contract subsidy actually work?

A contract plan is a loan with the phone as collateral. The telco charges you less than retail for the handset upfront, then recovers the difference through a monthly fee that is higher than the SIM-only equivalent, over 24 months, with an early termination charge if you leave.

The worked example comes from ShopBack's own iPhone 17 Pro telco guide, which priced the launch bundles. Singtel's Enhanced S 5G+ 200GB contract was S$78 a month plus S$512.70 upfront, which is S$2,384.70 over 24 months with the phone included. M1's 200GB Bespoke Contract was S$79.95 a month plus S$232 upfront, S$2,150.80 over 24 months. The same guide priced a SIM-free iPhone 17 Pro 256GB from LazMall Apple or an authorised Shopee seller plus a budget SIM-only plan at S$2,650 to S$2,850 over 24 months.

Read that carefully, because it is the honest case for a contract: on a flagship you were going to buy anyway, paired with a 200GB plan you were going to use anyway, the contract wins by S$265 to S$700. Where the contract loses is on every other persona. If your real usage is 50GB, the S$78 a month is buying 150GB you never touch. If you keep the phone for 36 months, you spend the third year paying a contract-grade rate (Wei Lin's problem) unless you actively move. And if you would have bought a mid-range Samsung or last year's iPhone, the subsidy on that phone is smaller while the monthly premium is the same.

The arithmetic you should run is three lines. Line one: retail price of the phone you actually want. Line two: 24 times the SIM-only plan that matches your real data use. Line three: upfront plus 24 times the contract monthly. If line one plus line two is bigger than line three, take the contract and set a calendar reminder for the end date. If it is smaller, buy the phone outright.

What actually moves the mobile bill?

The brand tier, not the data. As of September 2026 the data allowance is close to irrelevant: SIMBA's cheapest plan is 500GB, M1 Maxx is 600GB, Singtel Enhanced Lite is 300GB. Nobody on a phone uses that. What you pay for at Singtel and StarHub is the network ranking (Opensignal's July 2026 report again placed Singtel first for overall mobile experience, per HardwareZone's 28 July 2026 summary), the retail shops, and the bundling with home broadband and TV. At SIMBA and giga you pay for the line and nothing else.

Roaming inclusions. This is the quiet differentiator in 2026. SIMBA bundles global and APAC roaming into every plan; Singtel bundles Malaysia data into Enhanced Lite and above; StarHub's 5G Lite includes 1GB in five Southeast Asian destinations plus 1GB across 165 countries; giga includes up to 2GB in Asia; M1 Maxx added China. For anyone who crosses the Causeway monthly, that allowance replaces a S$5 to S$15 roaming add-on each time.

Contract status. Being inside, or lingering after, a 24-month contract is the single largest line. The S$78 contract rate against a S$10 to S$22 SIM-only line is S$56 to S$68 a month.

Promotional term. Singtel's S$24.50 Enhanced Lite price lasts 12 months on a 12-month term, then reverts to S$35. SIMBA's 90-day bundles save S$6 per quarter. giga rolls over unused data. These are real but second-order next to the first three.

Senior status. Singtel's S$6 promo, StarHub's S$12 and SIMBA's S$5 senior plans are the cheapest lines in the market, and the eligibility is age 60 and up at Singtel.

Which plan fits which person?

The one-bedder single whose contract ended months ago

Wei Lin's answer is any no-contract line that matches her real use, which is under 30GB because she is on Wi-Fi at home and in the office. SIMBA SO50GB at S$10 (500GB, 5G, roaming included) or giga Basic at S$10.19 (100GB, 4G, rollover) are the two cheapest, and M1 Maxx at S$12 for 600GB with China roaming is the pick if she visits family in Guangzhou. Porting her number takes a day or two. Her saving against the lingering contract rate is S$66 to S$68 a month, S$792 to S$816 a year.

The family of four in a 4-room HDB flat with four lines

Two adults, two teenagers, one of whom streams Disney+ on the bus. The telco answer is a multi-line family plan at Singtel, StarHub or M1 with supplementary-line discounts, which is tidy on one bill and pairs with home broadband. The cheaper answer is four separate no-contract SIM-only lines: four SIMBA SO50GB bundles are S$40 a month for 2TB of combined data; four giga Basic lines are S$40.76. Even four Singtel Enhanced Lite lines at S$24.50 each for 12 months are S$98. The reason to still choose the family plan is that a parent wants one bill, one shop, and a Singtel or StarHub broadband bundle; the reason not to is that supplementary lines are tied to the principal line's contract, so leaving later means unwinding all four.

The heavy streamer who watches on the MRT

An hour of 1080p video a day on mobile is roughly 45 to 90GB a month; 4K would be more but phones do not stream 4K. Every plan in the table covers it, so the question is network quality underground and at peak, which is where Singtel's 5G+ and StarHub's new 700MHz band earn their premium. The value pick is Singtel Enhanced Core at S$36 promo for unlimited local on the top-ranked network; the budget pick is SIMBA SR15 at S$15 for 600GB if your line test on the MRT is acceptable.

The frequent JB driver or Bangkok flyer

Roaming inclusions decide this one. Singtel Enhanced Core (50GB Malaysia plus 4GB Asia at S$36 promo) or Priority Plus (unlimited Malaysia plus 13GB Asia at S$49.50 promo) for a weekly Causeway crossing; SIMBA SuperRoam2030 (12GB global plus 50GB APAC at S$20) or SR80GB (15GB global plus 80GB APAC at S$25) for someone who flies around the region monthly. Both brands include voice roaming in some form; neither requires an add-on for the trips described.

The senior parent who wants calls and WhatsApp

Singtel Seniors SIM Only at S$6 promo (S$12 list) for 340GB with unlimited calls, SIMBA Seniors at S$5 for 500GB, StarHub 5G Senior at S$12. The deciding factor is which telco the children are on, because a family that can walk into a Singtel or StarHub shop with the parent will value that over S$1 a month, and SIMBA is app-only.

The person who wants the newest flagship every launch

This is the one persona where the contract is designed for you. Take the launch-window device plan with the port-in or recontract credit (up to S$360 for new sign-ups and S$300 for recontracts at the iPhone 17 launch, per ShopBack's guide), pick the lowest contract tier that covers your real usage rather than the 200GB headline, and diarise the end date so you do not become Wei Lin.

Which plan should you actually pick?

Cheapest line that covers everyone: SIMBA SO50GB at S$10 per 30 days for 500GB 5G with roaming included, as published by SIMBA in September 2026. giga Basic at S$10.19 is the 4G alternative with rollover (TheSmartLocal, January 2026).

Best network for the money: Singtel Enhanced Core at S$36 promo, unlimited local on the Opensignal-ranked network, no contract.

Best for a JB regular: Singtel Enhanced Lite (10GB Malaysia) at S$24.50 for 12 months, or SIMBA SO130GB (8GB global plus 18GB APAC) at S$12.

Best for a four-line household that wants one bill: a Singtel, StarHub or M1 family plan if broadband is bundled; four SIMBA lines at S$40 if it is not.

Best senior line: Singtel Seniors at S$6 promo for the shop support, SIMBA Seniors at S$5 for the price.

Contract with phone: only the flagship-every-launch persona, and only inside a launch promotion.

Where cashback via ShopBack fits

None of Singtel, StarHub, M1, giga or SIMBA is a ShopBack cashback merchant in Singapore, so the plan itself earns nothing. Where cashback lands is the thing a SIM-only plan makes you buy yourself: the phone. A SIM-free iPhone or Galaxy from Lazada, Shopee or Amazon Singapore bought through ShopBack earns cashback on the handset price, which is the largest single purchase in the whole SIM-only-versus-contract decision.

The mechanism is unchanged: open the ShopBack app or the Cashback Buddy extension first, tap through to the merchant, complete checkout in that session so tracking fires, and the cashback moves from pending to confirmed after the merchant's return window. The rate on the merchant page on the day is what you earn; it is not a fixed number and we do not quote one here. A returned phone voids the cashback on it.

The timing lines up with the launch-window advice above. Phone prices on the marketplaces drop hardest at 10.10, 11.11 and Black Friday on 27 November 2026, which is also when the telcos run recontract credits, so the honest comparison for the flagship persona is contract-with-credit against SIM-free-on-sale-with-cashback, run in the same week.

FAQ

What is the difference between a SIM-only plan and a contract plan in Singapore?

A SIM-only plan sells you the line alone, usually month to month or on a short 12-month term, and you bring your own phone. A contract plan bundles a phone into a 24-month agreement: you pay a reduced upfront price for the handset and a higher monthly fee, and the difference between the two is the subsidy being repaid over the term. SIM-only is sold by all five brands here, with SIMBA, giga and M1 Bespoke running no-contract and Singtel's Enhanced Lite on a 12-month term. Contract-with-phone is a Singtel, StarHub and M1 product; giga and SIMBA do not sell handsets on instalment.

How does the contract subsidy actually work?

Take the phone's retail price, subtract the upfront amount the telco charges you, and the remainder is the subsidy. The telco recovers it through the gap between the contract plan's monthly fee and the equivalent SIM-only fee over 24 months, plus an early termination charge if you leave. In ShopBack's iPhone 17 Pro telco guide, Singtel's 200GB Enhanced S 5G+ contract priced at S$78 a month plus S$512.70 upfront, S$2,384.70 across 24 months including the phone, while the same guide priced a SIM-free iPhone 17 Pro 256GB plus a budget SIM-only plan at S$2,650 to S$2,850 across the same 24 months. The contract is cheaper in that pairing only because the SIM-only plan it is compared against is not the cheapest line on the market.

How much data does a normal Singapore user actually use in a month?

Far less than the plans are sized for. A 4K Netflix hour is roughly 7GB and a standard-definition hour under 1GB; Spotify at high quality is about 150MB an hour; a two-hour YouTube commute at 1080p is about 3GB. Someone who streams video on mobile for an hour a day in HD uses roughly 45 to 90GB a month. Someone on Wi-Fi at home and the office uses 10 to 30GB. That is why SIMBA's 500GB for S$10, M1 Maxx's 600GB for S$12 and giga's 100GB for S$10.19 are all, for most people, unlimited in practice.

Is SIMBA cheaper than Singtel for the same amount of data?

On every tier, as of September 2026. SIMBA's SO50GB bundle is S$10 per 30 days for 500GB of 5G with 500 minutes and 3GB global plus 12GB APAC roaming. Singtel's cheapest adult SIM-only is Enhanced Lite at S$35 a month list, S$24.50 for the first 12 months on a 12-month contract, for 300GB plus 10GB in Malaysia. Singtel's unlimited-local Enhanced Core lists at S$40 (S$36 promo). What Singtel sells for the premium is its 5G+ network, which Opensignal's July 2026 report again ranked best in Singapore, plus retail shops and bundling with Singtel broadband.

Is giga cheaper than StarHub, given giga runs on StarHub's network?

Yes. giga is StarHub's app-only sub-brand on the same network. TheSmartLocal's January 2026 listing has giga's Basic 4G plan at S$10.19 a month for 100GB with 300 minutes, data rollover and up to 2GB of Asia roaming, against StarHub's own 5G Lite at S$22 a month for 150GB, 1,000 minutes and 1GB of roaming in five Southeast Asian destinations plus 1GB across 165 countries. You give up 5G on giga's base plan, the physical shop, and the StarHub entertainment bundles. For a user on Wi-Fi most of the day that trade is usually worth S$140 a year.

When is a contract plan with a phone genuinely the better deal?

When three things line up: you would have bought that exact flagship anyway, you would have used a 150GB-plus 5G plan anyway, and the telco is running a port-in or recontract credit. Launch windows are the sweet spot; at the iPhone 17 launch Singtel, StarHub and M1 ran S$0-upfront device plans with up to S$360 off for new sign-ups and S$300 for recontracts, per ShopBack's iPhone 17 Pro guide. If you keep phones for three years or more, or your usage is under 50GB, the contract subsidy is smaller than the monthly premium you pay for it.

When should I switch from a contract that has ended to a SIM-only plan?

The month the contract ends, because every month you stay on the contract rate after that is subsidy you are repaying on a phone you already own. Telcos do not automatically drop you to the SIM-only price. Check your bill for the contract end date, port your number (keep the same number by porting rather than cancelling), and move to a no-contract plan. Porting takes a working day or two in Singapore and your old line stays active until the new SIM goes live.

Can I keep my number when I move from Singtel or StarHub to SIMBA or giga?

Yes. Mobile number portability in Singapore lets you move a number between any of the licensed operators and their sub-brands, including from Singtel to SIMBA, StarHub to giga, or M1 to GOMO. You order the new SIM or eSIM, select port-in, enter your existing number and NRIC or FIN, and the switch happens once the new provider confirms. Singtel's SIM-only page notes that its promotional pricing is tied to port-in eligibility, and SIMBA and giga both issue eSIMs, so the move can be done without a physical SIM arriving.

Does a SIM-only plan include roaming for a JB or Bangkok trip?

Increasingly yes, and the inclusions are where the five brands differ most. As of September 2026 SIMBA bundles roaming into every plan: 3GB global plus 12GB APAC on the S$10 SO50GB, up to 15GB global plus 80GB APAC on the S$25 SR80GB, with free voice roaming. Singtel's Enhanced Lite includes 10GB in Malaysia, Enhanced Core 50GB in Malaysia plus 4GB in Asia, and Priority Plus unlimited Malaysia plus 13GB in Asia. StarHub 5G Lite includes 1GB in five Southeast Asian destinations plus 1GB across 165 countries. giga's base plan includes up to 2GB in Asia. M1's Maxx added China roaming in August 2026. For a monthly JB driver the SIMBA or Singtel Malaysia allowances replace a separate roaming add-on entirely.

What happens to a family's lines if the main account holder leaves the telco?

On a multi-line family plan at Singtel, StarHub or M1, the supplementary lines are attached to the principal account, so if the principal line is ported out mid-contract the supplementary lines either lose their shared-plan discount or must be re-contracted individually, and early termination charges apply to each line still inside its 24 months. The cleaner structure for a household that wants flexibility is four separate no-contract SIM-only lines (for example four SIMBA SO50GB bundles at S$10 each, S$40 a month for 2TB of combined data) under one payment method, which can be moved one at a time without touching the others.

Key takeaways

• As of September 2026 the cheapest adult SIM-only lines are SIMBA SO50GB at S$10 (500GB 5G, roaming included) and giga Basic at S$10.19 (100GB 4G, rollover); Singtel's cheapest is Enhanced Lite at S$24.50 for 12 months then S$35.
• A contract plan is a phone loan repaid through the monthly fee; it wins only for a flagship you would buy anyway on a 150GB-plus plan you would use anyway, inside a launch promotion.
• The single biggest avoidable cost is staying on a contract rate after the 24 months end; the gap to a no-contract line is S$56 to S$68 a month on a S$78 plan.
• Roaming inclusions now separate the brands more than data does: SIMBA bundles global and APAC roaming on every plan, Singtel bundles Malaysia from Enhanced Lite up, StarHub 5G Lite includes 1GB in five SEA destinations plus 1GB across 165 countries.
• StarHub's August 2026 acquisition of MyRepublic's mobile base and its 700MHz 5G band added on 1 September 2026 change the coverage picture for StarHub and giga users.
• Cashback via ShopBack lands on the SIM-free phone bought through Lazada, Shopee or Amazon Singapore, not on any telco plan.

Earn cashback via ShopBack on a SIM-free phone from Lazada to pair with your SIM-only plan Takes 2 minutes to sign up. No promo codes needed.

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About this article

Singtel and SIMBA plan prices are from each brand's own SIM-only pages in September 2026. M1 Maxx pricing is from HardwareZone's 14 August 2026 report and M1's Bespoke structure from M1's site in September 2026. StarHub 5G Lite and giga Basic pricing are from TheSmartLocal's 9 January 2026 roundup, the most recent dated listing we could confirm. Contract-plan worked examples are from ShopBack's iPhone 17 Pro telco guide. Network ranking is Opensignal's July 2026 report as summarised by HardwareZone on 28 July 2026. ShopBack receives a commission when readers complete a purchase through a cashback link. This commission does not vary by editorial coverage.

The views expressed are those of the author, for informational purposes only, and not professional advice.

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