Best and Worst Home Internet Providers - Consumer Reports (2024)

When Consumer Reports asked its members for feedback on their internet plans, more than half of the internet service providers (ISPs) were given unfavorable or worse ratings for overall satisfaction, and the majority earned our worst marks for value. In fact, just a handful of ISPs received stellar ratings for value.

That’s what we’ve found in previous surveys, too. And it’s a big pain point for many people. In earlier CR surveys, an overwhelming majority of CR members—84 percent, at last tally—agreed that web access is now as important as electricity or water service.

Some bright spots emerged from our most recent survey, which received responses from more than 48,000 CR members. Most respondents said their internet speed is very good to excellent and their service relatively reliable. In fact, their median broadband speed has nearly doubled—from 173 Mbps to 304 Mbps—from what they reported in our previous survey, back in 2022.

Many people, though, are paying more. The median price of broadband service in 2024 was $85 a month, a $9-a-month increase from 2022.

The survey was used to generate CR’s ratings of home internet service providers (available to members), which currently include more than 40 ISPs.

Best and Worst ISPs

In general, fiber-optic internet services received higher overall satisfaction scores than cable-internet providers, with DSL lagging further behind.

“We’ve observed consistent dissatisfaction among CR members in recent years when it comes to their telecommunication services, and internet service is no exception,” says Tian Wang, senior survey research associate at CR. “In fact, telecommunication services are some of the least popular of all the services that CR members help us to rate."

But some providers do have happy customers. Greenlight Networks, EPB, Allo Fiber, Google Fiber, GoNetSpeed, and Sonic all had overall satisfaction scores that landed in our top ratings tier, as well as favorable or higher overall scores for value.

Greenlight Networks serves municipalities in the Rochester, Buffalo, Binghamton, and Albany, N.Y. areas, while EPB is Chattanooga, Tennessee’s municipal broadband service. Allo Fiber is in 24 cities throughout Arizona, Colorado, and Nebraska, while Google Fiber now serves more than 45 cities in 19 states. GoNetSpeed is available in six Northeastern states, plus Alabama and Missouri. Sonic is the largest independent ISP in Northern California.

Conversely, five ISPs received our worst ratings. These include Altice (which offers Optimum- and SuddenLink-branded services); Brightspeed (which took over former CenturyLink customers in rural and suburban communities in 20 states); Kinetic by Windstream, which operates in 18 states; and two satellite internet providers, Viasat Internet, and HughesNet. All except for Optimum received our worst marks for all attributes across the board.

Traditional satellite broadband providers such as HughesNet and Viasat, which send signals from space, have traditionally fared poorly in CR’s telecom surveys. Starlink uses a newer technology that employs an array of small satellites in a much lower orbit around the earth, enabling them to offer faster speeds and lower latency, the latter term referring to the amount of time it takes for the service to respond to an action or command.

Still Few Choices Among Providers

Bundle Grumbles

Despite the growing number of people cutting ties with their traditional TV services, such as cable and satellite TV, bundles—plans that package internet along with TV and/or phone service—continue to be popular. About 60 percent of CR members said they received internet as part of a bundle.

However, they don’t always like it. We didn’t ask about bundled services in our most recent survey. However, in 2022 no bundle provider received a favorable Overall Satisfaction Score. Only 31 percent of members were "completely" or "very" satisfiedwith their bundle providers, and 26 percent were "dissatisfied."

Every single provider received our worst mark for value, even though there was a $100 difference between the cheapest median price paid at the time ($114 per month, from Kinetic by Windstream) and the highest ($218, from Cox).

RCN and Consolidated Communications were the only bundle providers to receive a passable score on any measure for customer service.

About two-thirds of members with a three-way bundled plan reported having at least one negative experience with their service. For example, a third found that the cost increased significantly after the initial promotional period ended on their contract, and 23 percent had difficulty getting customer service on the phone.

The most satisfied bundle customers were those who had a choice among providers. The relatively few consumers who had three or more bundle providers to choose from were most likely to be very or completely satisfied with their bundle provider.

It Pays to Haggle

A big takeaway from past CR surveys is that when it comes to internet, TV, and phone bundles, it pays to haggle. We didn’t update this question in our latest survey, but in 2022 nearly 70 percent of the people who tried negotiating succeeded in getting a discount or other benefit.

Of those, about a third received a lower price and/or got a new promotional rate. Fourteen percent were able to get faster broadband speed, and nearly 10 percent received additional premium channels, such as HBO or Showtime, or an extension of their original promotional rate. In fact, some hagglers walked away with multiple perks.

AT&T, Comcast (Xfinity), Cox, and Optimum customers were the most likely to get a promotional rate when they asked for one, according to the 2022 survey. Bundled customers who negotiated with Charter (Spectrum) were the least likely to get a lower price.