The Fastest Internet Providers 2021

We dug through more than 1.6 million speed test results for January to December 2019, to find the fastest internet provider in the US. Our data shows that Google Fiber earns the crown for fastest internet speeds.

To find the fastest internet providers, we measured and compared download speeds, upload speeds, and latency for more than 35 internet providers with 50 or more speed test results. We then used these measurements to create a weighted score for each internet provider. (The weighted score is not an actual representation of download or upload speeds, in case you were wondering.)

Why’d we crunch all these numbers? Well, everyone loves fast internet, and no one likes paying for fast download speeds when their actual speeds are sluggishly slow. And knowing which internet providers deliver the speeds they promise is half the battle.

These internet service providers (ISPs) will not only fuel your zippy web searches and blow that buffering icon out of the water, they also give you a whole lotta bang for your buck.

Let’s dig into the fastest internet providers in the US and by region so you can get your money’s worth when it comes to internet speed. (P.S. Here’s more info on how we scored each internet provider.)

The fastest large internet providers in the US

Google Fiber is No. 1 while Verizon Fios Home Internet, RCN, Xfinity, and Grande round out the top five.

We’re starting this list by focusing on the fastest large internet providers, and you might wonder why. That’s because larger providers likely have an ace up their sleeve: they’re more widely available across the US, and sometimes they’ll offer better deals.

Let’s face it, internet availability in the US still leaves a lot to be desired.

Many folks find themselves just out of arm’s reach of faster internet speeds. Like our family friends who live near Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, and can’t get Spectrum even though it’s available just down the road.

But chances are, one of these large ISPs is available in your town. And if you happen to have a choice between a couple of these providers, we say go with Google Fiber or Verizon Fios Home Internet.

Now, we’re not saying this to discount smaller, more local internet providers. On the contrary, a few of these local ISPs ranked in our top ten list of the fastest ISPs overall.

1. Google Fiber

Reviews.org weighted score: 75.6 out of 100

Time after time, Google Fiber throws down the gauntlet when it comes to internet speed. Its punchy download speeds come highly recommended by anyone lucky enough to live in a Google Fiber city, which is why we’re not surprised it scored 75.6 out of 100.

That brings us to the downside: Google Fiber stalled and then halted its expansion across the US. Why? You can thank local telecom service providers, who pulled out all the stops to slow or block Google Fiber’s expansion in the cities where they operate.¹ (Read: Competition? We don’t want it.) Not to mention the sky-high cost of building fiber internet infrastructure.¹

But for anyone living in the 19 cities lucky enough to get Google Fiber, you can bet your internet will hit ludicrous speed levels.

2. Verizon Fios Home Internet

Reviews.org weighted score: 65.1 out of 100

Live in the northeastern or southern US? Then chances are you can get your hands on high-performing Verizon Fios Home Internet.

Verizon’s fiber internet scored a 65.1 out of 100 for its reliably fast download and upload speeds, plus low latency. And we’ve heard nothing but good things about its customer service and performance from friends lucky enough to get Verizon Fios Home Internet in their area.

And if you like to bundle your internet with TV, Verizon Fios offers some of the best mix and match TV and internet combos out there.

3. RCN

Reviews.org weighted score: 47.4 out of 100

The Northeast is home to another big hitter when it comes to internet speed: RCN comes in third with a score of 47.4 out of 100. Don’t mind us, we’re still sore that RCN is available only in cities like Boston, Chicago, and Philadelphia.

But if you call one of these big northeastern cities home, RCN is worth checking out—and not just for its fast internet speeds. Its plans come with no contract, and that low price is locked in for 12 months. Win-win.

4. Comcast Xfinity

Reviews.org weighted score: 46.6 out of 100

Xfinity gets a lot of flak for its customer service, but this nationwide ISP still plugs its customers into swift internet speeds. Xfinity, still known by some of us as Comcast (its parent company), scored a 46.6 out of 100, putting it just below RCN.

And while Xfinity’s customer service is pretty par for the course when it comes to internet service, it does up the ante and make some other providers scramble to keep up. It offers one of the broadest choices of internet plans, some of the most competitive prices, and one of the largest—if not the largest—service areas in the US.

5. Grande Communications

Reviews.org weighted score: 42.9 out of 100

They say don’t mess with Texas, and Grande doesn’t mess around with the internet speeds it delivers to residents of the Lone Star State. This cable internet provider scored a 42.9 out of 100, putting it pretty much on the same level as more well-known providers like Xfinity and RCN.

Grande also gifts its customers with some really low prices for snappy speeds, plus no contracts and unlimited data. That’s about all we could ever want in an ISP.

The 10 fastest internet providers in the US

Google Fiber is the fastest ISP in the entire US, but smaller providers are picking up speed.

Larger ISPs may have a leg up with a wider service area and therefore access to more revenue to upgrade their infrastructure (hopefully). But small internet providers still managed to turn the tables when you look at the full picture of which ISPs deliver fast speeds around the country.

Take a look and you’ll see that, out of the top five fastest internet providers, the last three are local internet providers. And out of the top ten, four are smaller, local providers.

• ALLO: Fiber internet with speeds of 500 to 1,000 Mbps. Serves parts of Colorado and Nebraska
• Elevate Internet: Fiber internet with speeds of 150 to 1,000 Mbps. Serves Montrose and Delta counties in Colorado.
• Endeavor Communications: Fiber internet with speeds of 100 to 1,000 Mbps. Serves parts of Indiana.
• GVTC: Fiber internet with speeds of 250 to 1,000 Mbps. Serves Far North San Antonio, the Texas Hill Country, and South-Central Texas.³

Even today, access to fast internet speeds isn’t always possible for most Americans. Even those who have more than one choice for internet in their area may not see internet speeds that allow them to work, learn, or play online.

That’s why many small towns are chipping in to create their own local internet providers²—and it’s why we’re keeping an eye on these small providers.

You never know, this may become a David and Goliath story where a small ISP takes the crown for fastest internet next year.

The fastest internet providers by region

We love to celebrate gig speeds, unlimited data caps, and contract-free internet plans. But what if you lived in an area where internet speeds of even 25 Mbps were a miracle?

This is what life is like for more than 24 million people in the US, according to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).⁴ And it’s likely the number of rural Americans without access to fast internet that allows them to work from home or even use the internet in modern ways, like Zoom meetings, is much larger.^5,6

Yes, the rural-urban internet divide is very real in the US, and even those of us in cities may not have access to some or all of the top ten fastest internet providers on our list.  So we’ve broken our findings down by region to give a more accurate view of the fastest internet providers in your area.

You may notice that some of the weighted regional scores are different from the weighted nationwide scores. That’s because we considered only the ISPs’ performance in that particular region. So you’re seeing a weighted score that reflects the average download and upload speeds, as well as average latency, in the states that make up that region—not in the US as a whole. We believe this gives a more accurate view of each region and the internet providers that service them.

Fastest internet providers in the Northeast

Includes: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont

Fastest internet providers in the South

Includes: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, DC, and West Virginia

Fastest internet providers in the Midwest

Includes: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin

Fastest internet providers in the West

Includes: Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming

Fastest internet providers in the Pacific

Includes: Alaska and Hawaii

Recap: The 10 fastest internet providers 2021

Google Fiber ultimately won out as the fastest ISP in the US, but runners-up Verizon Fios Home Internet, ALLO, Elevate Internet, and Endeavor Communications aren’t far behind.

1. Google Fiber
2. Verizon Fios Home Internet
3. ALLO
4. Elevate Internet
5. Endeavor Communications
6. RCN
7. Xfinity
8. Grande Communications
9. Optimum
10. GVTC (Guadalupe Valley Telephone Company)

This year’s ranking of the fastest internet providers puts large, nationwide internet providers up against smaller, more local ISPs. This just goes to show that even though you may not have heard of your local ISP yet, they just might be worth checking out.

US internet providers ranked by speed

Here’s our full list of 38 US internet providers ranked by their speed performance. Remember, our weighted score takes into account both the ISP’s average download and upload speeds, plus its average latency.

Don’t see your ISP listed? We likely didn’t have enough speed test data to analyze its speed fully. We only looked at internet providers with at least 50 speed test results between January and December 2019. (You can help us get the facts on your ISP’s speed for next year’s ranking by taking our internet speed test.)

US internet providers ranked by speed, connection type

We also broke down how each ISP compared to other providers offering the same connection types. Sometimes this is easier said than done, though, because quite a few internet providers offer more than one connection type.

But this gives you a better idea of how a certain ISP’s speeds measure up when compared to similar providers versus providers with more advanced connection types, like fiber. (Seriously, there’s no comparing, say, satellite internet speeds to fiber internet speeds. It’s just unfair.)

The states with the fastest and slowest internet

With an average download speed of 86.1 Mbps, the fastest state in the US is Delaware, at least when it comes to internet. The slowest? Alaska, which averaged 24 Mbps download speeds.

Look at average download speeds by state and you’ll see that most of the US is still dreaming about gigabit internet speeds, let alone hitting the 100 Mbps download speed mark. If you look at the country as a whole, the average download speed is 57.2 Mbps.

But some states fall well below that national average. That means some folks are stuck with speeds that make it difficult to run a home full of connected devices, like home security systems—not to mention working, learning, and entertaining ourselves online.

Test your internet speed

We’d love to hear from you about how fast (or not-so-fast) your internet connection is. Whether you have a small ISP or subscribe to an internet plan from one of the major providers, your speed test results help others like you find an ISP that actually delivers fast speeds.

Methodology

To identify the fastest internet providers in the US, we looked at results from more than 1.6 million internet speed tests taken on Reviews.org and HighSpeedInternet.com between January 1, 2019, and December 31, 2019.

We narrowed down the number of ISPs we included by analyzing only the residential internet providers that had 50 or more speed test results for that date range. After identifying 38 different residential ISPs with 50 or more speed test results, we looked at download speeds, upload speeds, and latency for each one.

Each ISP’s Reviews.org weighted score takes into account its average download speeds (70% of the weighted score), average upload speeds (20%), and average latency (10%). We then ranked the ISPs by weighted score for the US as a whole and by region. (Regional borders were determined by US Census definitions, except for Alaska and Hawaii, which we separated out into their own group.)

It’s important to note that the Reviews.org weighted score for each ISP doesn’t reflect it’s promised or actual speeds or latency. Why’d we do this? Well, we didn’t want to give anyone a false idea of what their internet speed or latency could be. Lots of factors can affect your internet speed, so your experience may be a lot different than even your neighbor’s who uses the same ISP.

But internet providers that connected customers with fast speeds and low latency earned higher weighted scores than internet providers with slow speeds and high latency. So, the higher the score, the better (or faster) the ISP.

Sources

1. Jim Burress, Atlanta Magazine, “The Big Disconnect: What Happened to Google Fiber in Atlanta?,” May 2018. Accessed July 22, 2020.
2. Melissa Repko, The Dallas Morning News, “Fed Up With Slow and Spotty Internet, a Small Texas Town Built Its Own High-Speed Network,” December 2019. Accessed July 23, 2020.
3. Kristen Mosbrucker, San Antonio Business Journal, “GVTC Boosts Minimum Internet Speed,” January 2019. Accessed July 23, 2020.
4. Federal Communications Commission (FCC), “2018 Broadband Deployment Report,” February 2018. Accessed July 23, 2020.
5. Congressional Research Service, “Broadband Internet Access and the Digital Divide: Federal Assistance Programs,” October 2019. Accessed July 23, 2020.
6. Clark Merrefield, Journalist’s Resource, “Rural Broadband in the Time of Coronavirus,” March 2020. Accessed July 23, 2020.