Readers' Choice 2021: Internet Service Providers

While quarantine is in the rearview for many of us, remote work, video chats, and other bandwidth-intensive activities continue. Online gaming, video streaming, and daily check-ins with Alexa rely on a fast, reliable internet connection.

In the US, web users are largely dependent on the one cable company providing broadband in their neighborhoods, though as wireless internet speeds get faster, we are finally starting to get a few internet service provider options. In this month's Readers’ Choice survey, we asked you to rate your ISP. Did it live up to the challenge of the pandemic and beyond? Read on to find out.

Readers' Choice ISPs for 2021

Internet service in the United States is provided by a combination of small, local internet service providers and large, national ISPs, many of which have grown by snapping up smaller companies. That helps explain why 24 ISPs received at least the requisite minimum of 50 responses to be included in our survey results—many more companies than normally qualify for our other Readers’ Choice surveys.

Google Fiber is a little ISP from a big company. Available in only 11 cities (16 if you count its WebPass-brand for multi-dwelling units), Google Fiber is the gold standard among ISPs. It wins our Readers’ Choice Award for the second year in a row, earning the highest satisfaction ratings on every question in our survey except satisfaction with installation and setup, and on that one it simply didn't get enough responses.  

Google Fiber received an overall satisfaction rating of 8.8 on a scale from 0 (extremely dissatisfied) to 10 (extremely satisfied). While this is down slightly from last year’s 9.1, it’s still a few notches ahead of the next highest-rated ISP, Texas-based Grande Communications (8.5), and in another stratosphere from the ISPs bringing up the rear—Suddenlink and CenturyLink, both of which received overall satisfaction ratings of 5.8.

Speed and reliability are critical for a top ISP, and Google Fiber topped the charts on satisfaction with both attributes, earning an 8.9 and 8.8, respectively. It's also on top for support and ease of use. Google received ratings of 8.9 for both satisfaction with customer support and satisfaction with repairs, and 8.8 for satisfaction with tech support. Only four other ISPs (Grande, RCN, Sparklight, and Wave Broadband) had ratings above 8.0 on these measures, and approximately half of the ISPs rated under 7.0 on these support-related questions.

Verizon Fios (sometimes marketed as Fios by Verizon now) brought fiber to the home several years before Google and now serves over 6.3 million subscribers. Once again, it earns a Readers’ Choice Award, just as it has every year since 2006. Its overall satisfaction of 8.1 is the highest for a major, national ISP this year, and it places Verizon far ahead of the providers with the most customers in our survey: Xfinity (6.9) and Spectrum (6.8). Fios’ satisfaction-with-speed rating of 8.4 was second to Google and tied with Grande and Wave, while its satisfaction with reliability rating of 8.7 was just 0.1 behind Google.

Sadly, there are many places where high-speed fiber and cable are still not available. In the past, those customers desiring more than dial-up speeds would turn to DSL or satellite, both of which were less than ideal. We are now seeing more respondents turning to fixed wireless solutions such as T-Mobile Home Internet, or even just using mobile carriers like Verizon Wireless.

The recently launched T-Mobile Home Internet received the highest satisfaction ratings in our survey among wireless providers. While not quite up to the levels of our Readers’ Choice Award winners, these services appear to provide a viable alternative for those looking for ISP choice. This year, none of the satellite providers made the cut, not even SpaceX's buzzy Starlink. But maybe that'll change next year.

Full Results

The PCMag Readers' Choice survey for ISPs was in the field from May 3, 2021, to May 24, 2021. For more information on how our surveys are conducted, read the survey methodology.

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