No contract iPhones are finally available on most of the major networks, but they do cost a bit more than your typical Android phone. While you do save some money over the two-years by paying up front and going for a cheaper no-contract plan, I recommend signing up for a warranty program to protect your investment.
The Straight Talk plan offers the 16GB versions of the 6 and 6 Plus models
for $650 and $750 respectively. These run on the AT&T network.
The Net10 plans used to be very similar to the Straight Talk plans (the same company owns both brands). However, Net10 has recently introduced cheaper plan options in exchange for a lower data allowance. For example, for $40 you can now get unlimited talk and text and 500 MB of high speed data (that’ll go fast) before it throttles down to slower speeds. This is also an option if you’re in an area where there isn’t good high-speed coverage anyway.
Consumer Cellular may be the first no-contract provider to offer the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.
The 6 Plus cost is split into a $200 up-front payment followed by 22 monthly payments of $25. The 6 requires a $150 up-front payment followed by 20 monthly $25 payments. If you cancel service before this period, the remaining balance is billed to your credit or debit card.
You choose separate voice and text/data plans. With an iPhone, you can choose their Connect! Max data plan which offers 2GB of data for $30 a month. You can combine that with a 200-minute voice plan for an additional $15 a month for a reasonable package for $45 plus taxes. Coverage is on the AT&T network. You can get by with less if you will use WiFi most of the time.
Cricket carries the 5S for $649 and the 5c for $549. or pay $25 down and make 23
additional payments of $25. Coverage is on the AT&T network.
PTel has the iPhone 5C available from one of their distribution partners and used iPhone through Glyde (although the setup wasn't working when I last checked).
Their $35 a month plans gives you unlimited voice, text and 500 MB high-speed data on the T-Mobile network.
Boost Mobile is owned by Sprint. They still list the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus for 549.99 and 649.99 respectively, which is a really good price.However they are out of stock on all models, so it's unclear whether they will still actually carry the phone.
Virgin Mobile used to offers various models of the iPhone, but they no longer do so. When they did, they had the iPhone 5S and 5C with 16GB of memory for $314.99 and 404.99 respectively. They also offered the 32 GB and 64 GB versions (when in stock) for about $100 more every time you doubled the memory. Like all Virgin phones, these handsets also ran on the Sprint network. Service plans started at $35 per month for unlimited data and 300 voice minutes per month.