Spectrum vs. Google Fiber: Which One Is Worth Your Money?

Internet service providers aren’t exactly known for their popularity, but there are plenty of happy Google Fiber customers. RJ Bass, an IT specialist in Kansas City, has moved multiple times over the past decade, and he’s made sure that any new place he moves is able to get Google Fiber.

“I used to be a semi-popular Twitch streamer, and the upload speeds I got from Time Warner were not good enough for me to stream to Twitch while my sons were hosting game servers,” he says. “With Google, we got more than enough bandwidth to do anything we needed online.”

Andy Phillips, a network architect in Austin, Texas, was just as enthusiastic about his home internet setup, which runs on the 8 Gig plan that costs $150 a month. Most internet users don’t need speeds faster than a gigabit, but Phillips benefits enormously from his superpowered home network to handle online gaming and host an always-on VPN server and an online cloud server for sharing movies and music with friends and family. He hardwires his router to his computer via ethernet, making his internet capable of surpassing Google’s advertised 8Gbps bandwidth ceiling.

“Not many can take advantage of speeds over 1Gbps,” Phillips acknowledged in his chat with Reviews.org. “Most people struggle because they only use Wi-Fi, or have hardware limited to 1Gbps.

“But if you have the hardware,” he added, “Google is not going to hold you back.”

The customer experience is solid too. When one of our writers signed up for Google Fiber a few years ago, scheduling installation was easy: A technician showed up during the designated time, set everything up, and plugged in a free Wi-Fi 6E router along with a Wi-Fi extender. Since then, contacting customer support has been a breeze—the writer quickly gets connected to a real person, who answers questions clearly and handles any troubleshooting issues.

Most of the customers we spoke to about Spectrum decided to sign up because they had no other viable options. Cable internet companies are the only high-speed internet option in many cities and towns. “Spectrum was the only service provider that offered anything faster than 100Mbps download,” said Sean Huntley, a documentary producer who lives in Glendale, California with his girlfriend, Alex Brown.

Huntley and Brown both work in the film industry (Brown is a film editor) and their jobs require them to have a gigabit internet to work remotely, so they go for the fastest-possible Spectrum plan. Their speeds usually clock in at around 400–500Mbps—well below their plan’s advertised max speed but still plenty to handle downloading large video files, even though uploads take longer. All in all, they’re pleased with their service, even if they would prefer fiber. “It’s been competent—and compulsory,” Huntley jokes.

Still, some users report dealing with poor customer service, and their experiences mirror Spectrum’s middling ratings for customer service. When Sakia Anwar’s internet recently went out at her New York City apartment, her efforts to get the Wi-Fi back on in time for a work call were roadblocked by a customer service agent who tried to sell her a cable TV plan.

“I told him three or four times, ‘No, I am not interested,’ and he just would not stop,” Anwar recalls. “I think he was reading off a script or something. He was like, ‘Oh, okay, thank you for your feedback,’ and he would keep going on. I wanted to punch him in the throat.”

Spectrum is “not very customer friendly,” says Robyn Straw, a customer in St. Cloud, Minnesota. She’s thinking about moving to satellite provider Starlink because she’s gotten so disappointed with the frequent outages and the sluggish customer-service response on her My Spectrum app. “Spectrum can be reliable,” she says, “just hope you don’t need help from customer service.”