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.)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

Includes: Alaska and Hawaii

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.

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.)

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.)

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.

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.

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.

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