A low-cost diversity receiver includes two receiver units for a primary path and a secondary/diversity path. The first receiver unit is compliant with, for example, IS-98D requirements. The second receiver unit is not fully compliant with the IS-98D requirements (e.g., may meet requirements for sensitivity but not for out-of-band rejection). The second receiver unit is wideband and designed with lower power consumption, less area, and lower cost than the first receiver unit. For a multi-antenna receiver, the two receiver units are used to simultaneously process two received signals from two antennas. For a single-antenna receiver, one of the two receiver units is used to process a received signal from one antenna. For a dual-band design, each receiver unit can operate at two frequency bands. Narrowband circuit blocks are used for the first receiver unit, and wideband circuit blocks are used for the second receiver unit.