Best Internet Providers for Business

There's a marked difference between residential and business internet. With residential internet, you only need to cater to you and your family's needs. With business internet, you'll consider the business' and its employees' needs.

Here’s what to look for when picking an internet service for your business.

An AT&T Business Internet fiber plan is an all-around excellent option for your growing business. AT&T’s fiber internet is superfast (going up to 5Gbps) and even has symmetrical speeds and unlimited data with some plans. It also ranks first in the American Consumer Satisfaction Index for 2022.

AT&T Business Internet runs more expensive than its competitors (at least initially). The cheapest plan starts at $75 for 300Mbps. But with the most expensive plan, you get roughly 16 times the speed at three times the price—an increased value for sure.

AT&T’s business plans use a reliable fiber connection, and the speed goes up to 5,000Mbps. That’s unheard of in a home internet connection and eye-popping even in the business sector. And what’s more, you’ll get unlimited data and symmetrical speed with those five gigs, meaning the upload speed will equal the download speed. You’ll both send and receive high-res media files with ease.

As the ACSI score suggests, AT&T fiber internet gets excellent customer satisfaction, so you'll likely be delighted with your service.

Spectrum is a solid internet provider we often recommend, and Spectrum Business Internet ups the ante by providing a free domain name, customer email addresses, and internet modem with your plan. That's practically everything you need to start a business! Plus, you can find Spectrum internet in 42 states, so you likely live in a service area.

We do want to point out that Spectrum's plans are substantially more expensive from the get-go than other providers' (and they only go up after 12 months). Instead of thinking of the domain name, emails, and modem as free, it may help to think of the extra cost as paying for those features.

But if that’s still too pricey for you, you may be able to get discounts by bundling the business internet with another Spectrum service—business phone lines, perhaps?

All of Spectrum's plans are high speed, reaching the princely pace of a whole gig. However, Spectrum projects that you can connect fewer employee devices than AT&T. These estimates seem low even with Spectrum's cable connection versus AT&T's fiber. The 300 and 600Mbps plans may go much further than Spectrum says. But if you want to avoid that gamble, select Spectrum internet service only if you have a small business.

Spectrum’s customer service needs a little work, according to the ACSI. The service scored just 64 out of 100. That's low, even for internet providers, which traditionally score beneath other industries.

Whether you have a small business or a medium-sized one, Comcast Business Internet has an option for you. Depending on your needs, you can get as few as 50Mbps or as many as 1.25Gbps.

Comcast’s biggest strength is its variety. The wide range of plan speeds gives you great scalability for your business to grow. It’s also available almost everywhere in the United States, making it a viable option for nearly everyone.

Unfortunately, Comcast changes its prices depending on its service area, so we can't guarantee exact costs. But for reference, we've included one of the service's price ranges. You can see that these prices get quite expensive (over $300!), so in some areas, Comcast definitely won't be the best value.

Also, Comcast Business Internet is a cable service, so you may not see as reliable of service as you would get with fiber plans. Still, your connection should be stable.

Surprisingly, Comcast, which is legendary for its terrible customer service, doesn’t rank that low with the ACSI. Its score of 68 ranks it above some of the other brands we recommend.

Ka-chow! No, it’s not Lightning McQueen that’s going so fast—it’s Frontier Business Internet. After AT&T, our overall pick, Frontier is your best bet for speedy connections.

Frontier's speeds start at 500Mbps, the fastest starting point of our recommended services, and go up to 2,000Mbps. The starting price is a little high ($65), but the value of the plans gets progressively better, especially considering that you get a fiber connection. Also, a router comes with each plan, so factor that into the cost.

Frontier doesn't predict how many devices can connect to each plan without overloading the Wi-Fi, but our speed guide will help you figure it out.

Sadly, Frontier is only available in some states, so your opportunities to sign up for the service are limited. This won't be a problem for, as an example, New Yorkers or Utahns—but Montanans will miss out.

The ACSI gives Frontier fiber a 74, which puts it on the higher end for internet customer service but the lower end for fiber satisfaction. So, though you'll get fast service through Frontier, your interactions with the company may need improvement.

You'll spend less money with CenturyLink as your business internet service provider. CenturyLink offers 940Mbps and symmetrical speeds for $75 a month, which is quite a steal compared to other Wi-Fi providers. And with no contact, you can save money if needed by canceling (for free!) anytime.

Of course, you want more than just cheap internet; you also want reliable internet. For its cheaper plan, CenturyLink uses DSL, a less reliable option. But the provider also has a business fiber plan, which we recommend in most cases, depending on your business needs.

Also, good news: CenturyLink is fairly ubiquitous, so chances are it’s available in your area as a business internet provider.

Like Frontier, CenturyLink doesn’t offer guesstimates of how many devices can use each plan, but the Business Fiber plan should offer exponentially more connections than the other.

CenturyLink gets a 78 in customer satisfaction for its fiber service (coming second after AT&T), while its DSL gets 62 (between Frontier and Spectrum). Looks like you'll be pleased with Business Fiber, but maybe not so much with Simply Unlimited Business Internet.

• AT&T Business Internet: When it comes to overall value, AT&T Business Internet is our pick. The speediness, symmetrical speeds, data cap elimination, and customer service reputation make it our top choice—and costly.
• Spectrum Business: The Spectrum Business Internet fiber service comes with a free domain, email addresses, and modem. However, Spectrum customer satisfaction could be higher.
• Comcast Business: Comcast Business Internet offers six different plans, giving you plenty of options to address your business’s needs over the years. It’s also rather expensive, especially when you get to the higher speeds.
• Frontier Business: Things get real speedy with Frontier Business Internet, which goes up to 2,000Mbps. But the service may not be available in your area.
• CenturyLink Business: CenturyLink Business Internet offers 940Mbps fiber for $75, which is fantastic. The cheaper plan isn't as good a deal, though, so if you don't get the fiber, you should skip this one.

We make sure to consider a bunch of different factors when we recommend an internet service provider, such as:

1. Price
2. Speed
3. Availability
4. Customer service score

Price and speed are the two things most customers weigh heavily when choosing a service. After all, you want something you can afford but that works well, right?

But that’s not all there is to consider. You also want to know if a service is available in your area. That’s why we either discuss a service’s availability or provide you with a zip check test like the one below.

And finally, we account for the ACSI customer service score, online reviews, current news, and our personal experiences to determine what kind of customer experience you’ll get with each service.