An Honest Sparklight Internet Review: Is It Worth It?

Sparklight’s prices and plans depend on where you live. We checked out two different locations (Fargo, North Dakota, and Anniston, Alabama) and saw two different sets of plans and prices.

In general, the Freedom Connect plans are all great deals. You’ll get a lot of value with unlimited data and competitive prices. In contrast, the plans that aren't Freedom Connect are on the pricier side compared to other ISPs (more on that below). 

Use our zip finder above to see if Freedom Connect plans are available in your area.

Our biggest issue with Sparklight’s plan availability is that anyone living in an area where the Freedom Connect plans are unavailable is stuck paying high prices and possibly dealing with low data caps.

The Freedom Connect 600 and Freedom Connect Gig plans are great deals. But the Internet 600 Internet Gig plans—your two alternatives to the Freedom Connect plans—are not. This is due to the high monthly price and low data caps—about one terabyte (1,200 GB) a month for each of these plans.

To be fair, several internet service providers (ISPs) offer only one TB of data. Still, we’d rather see them offer unlimited data at no extra cost, especially for gigabit-speed plans.

The Freedom Connect 300 Mbps plan offers a promotional price of $39 a month for six months.

After six months, your price for the Freedom Connect 300 Mbps plan goes up to $65 a month.

None of Sparklight’s other plans currently offer a six-month-long promotional price, but you may find limited-time offers.

Promotional prices are pretty common when it comes to internet, and we’re happy to see Sparklight be transparent about it.

Sparklight also offers home phone packages, or you can check out our picks for the best cell phone plans. (Verizon is our pick for the best coverage, or you can check out Visible for stellar family plans.)

Sparklight didn’t make our cut for the best TV service providers, but you might find our favorites for cable TV (Xfinity and Spectrum) in your area. And don’t forget about live TV streaming services, like fuboTV and YouTube TV. 

Sparklight is available in 25 states, with most of its service in Idaho, Mississippi, and Arizona.

If you get the option of Sparklight’s Freedom Connect plans, its value is comparable to other ISPs in the area, like CenturyLink Internet.

But we noticed that folks in Anniston, Alabama, could get lower prices for internet from AT&T compared to Sparklight. And while EarthLink might be more expensive than Sparklight or any other option in your area, it’s regarded as one of the best internet providers for customer service.

Also of note is that most of Sparklight’s competitors offer unlimited data. However, if you’re stuck with a DSL connection from AT&T, CenturyLink, or EarthLink, you may deal with fewer outages if you choose Sparklight’s cable internet connection.

If we compare plans, Sparklight’s Freedom Connect 300 Mbps promotional price of $39 is by far your cheapest option. Even after it reaches the full standard price of $65 a month, Freedom Connect 300 Mbps doesn't cost much more than AT&T, CenturyLink, or EarthLink.

But on the top end of speeds Sparklight offers, its Internet Gig plan is one of the most expensive gigabit plans we’ve seen. Not to mention that it comes with a data cap of 1.5 TB. (To be fair, most of us won’t use that much data, but still. Unlimited is better.)

Here’s how its price compares to Sparklight Freedom Connect Gig and similar plans from AT&T, CenturyLink, and EarthLink:

As you can see, Internet Gig is the worst deal of them all. But Sparklight’s Freedom Connect Gig is cheaper than or a similar price compared to AT&T, CenturyLink, and EarthLink.

The moral of the story is: If you can get Sparklight Freedom Connect, you’re golden. Look elsewhere for better value if you’ve got Internet 300 Mbps or Internet Gig as your Sparklight options.

Want to learn more about your internet options with AT&T, CenturyLink, and EarthLink? We’ve got full reviews for each one:

• AT&T Internet Review
• CenturyLink Internet Review
• EarthLink Internet Review

Sparklight’s internet plans give you a choice of 50, 300, 400, 600, and 1,000 Mbps download speeds—or 100, 300, 600, and 940 Mbps download speeds. Which options you get depends on where you live.

We like that Sparklight offers a wide range of download speeds no matter your location. The starting speed of 300 Mbps is great for small families, and if you need more internet speed than that, you’re covered by the rest of Sparklight’s plans.

But watch out for small data caps and slow upload speeds.

Sparklight’s upload speeds aren’t anything to write home about—but then again, 10–30 Mbps upload speeds are pretty standard for cable providers. Still, we’d love to see these get faster, especially since fiber internet providers offer symmetrical, or matching, upload and download speeds.

Some of Sparklight’s data caps disappoint us. While half of its plans come with unlimited data, the other half have oddball data caps ranging from 700 GB to 1,500 GB.

• Internet 50 Mbp: 1,000 GB (1 TB)
• Internet 300: 700 GB
• Internet 600 Mbps: 1,500 GB (1.5 TB)
• Internet Gig: Unlimited
• Freedom Connect 300: Unlimited
• Freedom Connect 600: Unlimited
• Freedom Connect Gig: Unlimited

Granted, most of us won’t use 1,200 or 1,500 GB of data in a month, so those data caps are a tad bit more reasonable.

If you go over your data cap, Sparklight charges you $10 for every extra 100 GB, up to $30 (or 300 GB).

You can add unlimited data to your Sparklight plan, but it’ll cost you $40 extra per month. So, to get unlimited data, you’ll pay a pretty penny for it. Nope, not worth it if you can get a different provider.

All of Sparklight’s internet plans come with no contract.

That’s a huge bonus because it means you can cancel or change your plan at any time without having to pay an early termination fee (ETF). And trust us, ETFs are no joke. Many are upwards of $200 or $300.

You can rent a modem from Sparklight for $10.50 a month, or you can buy your own.

Sparklight’s modem rental fee isn’t bad—it’s one of the lower fees around. But you may save money (and get extra modem features) if you buy your own modem.

• Sparklight modem rental fee: $10.50 a month

All of Sparklight’s modems now come with WiFi ONE, which includes up to three extenders to blanket your entire home with a Wi-Fi signal.

If you decide to use your own modem, make sure it’s supported by Sparklight first. And as for other equipment, may we recommend some of our favorite routers?

No internet provider lets you avoid service fees entirely. In the grand scheme of things, Sparklight’s fees aren’t over the top—though we’ve seen plenty of cheaper installation and activation fees.

It never hurts to ask for your installation and activation fees to be waived, though. We say go for it.

• Installation fee: Free or up to $90. Sparklight may offer you a free installation deal, so don’t be afraid to ask.
• Activation fee: Free or up to $100. Again, we recommend asking if you can get this fee waived.
• Internet surcharge: $2.75 a month. Most ISPs charge this fee to help maintain their networks in your area.
• Service visit fee: $45
• Data overage fee: $10 for every 100 GB, up to $50—or 500 GB—a month

Sparklight seems to offer pretty good customer service. According to the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), Sparklight's customer service was given a 71 out of 100 by consumers.

This rating gives Sparklight the 3rd place reward as the average consumer satisfaction rating was 66 and sits behind T-Mobile 5G Home Internet and AT&T Internet. 

If you do need to call a Sparklight representative, we recommend checking out our customer service tips before you pick up the phone. Or try reaching out on social media—sometimes it’s easier than getting stuck on hold.

• Sparklight tech and billing support: 1-877-692-2253
• Twitter: @sparklightcares
• Facebook: @SparklightCares

It’s hard to say whether or not Sparklight Internet is good because it depends on which plans you can get in your location. If you’ve got Freedom Connect plans as an option, then yes, Sparklight is a good internet option.

But if you’re stuck with the Internet 600 Mbps or Internet Gig plans, we say look elsewhere. (Unless you can settle for the Freedom Connect 300 Mbps plan, which is a good deal.)

• Prices and plans: Sparklight’s Freedom Connect plans are the best deal—all of these plans offer competitive pricing and unlimited data. But the rest of its plans are a no-go due to low data caps and sky-high prices.
• Speed: Sparklight offers a wide range of internet speeds, up to 940 Mbps. That’s great, and its performance is decent too.
• Data caps: Some of Sparklight’s plans have wonky data caps. We say go for one of its unlimited data plans—you shouldn’t need to pay an extra $40 a month to not worry about data overages.
• Contracts, equipment, and fees: Sparklight doesn’t require you to sign a contract, which is ideal. Its equipment is also of decent quality, and though some of its fees are high, it does offer deals like free installation or activation.
• Customer service: Based on customer reports, we’d say Sparklight is one of the better ISPs to deal with when it comes to customer service.

We went down a rabbit hole and checked out Sparklight's plans and pricing using different addresses in the ISP’s service area. We then dug into the following:

• Plan availability
• Pricing
• Data caps and internet speeds
• Contracts, fees, and equipment
• Customer service reviews

Afterward, we compared our Sparklight data to information on other ISPs that are available in the same area to determine which Sparklight plans offer value—or not.