GFiber vs. Verizon 5G Home Internet: Which One Is Worth Your Money?

Verizon’s has three 5G internet plans priced at $50, $60, and $75, and all come with free equipment and installation. Plus, with Verizon's Forward program, qualifying households can get up to a $30 monthly discount on their Verizon service—see if you're eligible in this overview of low-income Verizon Internet.

GFiber has four main fiber plans that offer up to 8Gig speeds for $70–$150 (there may be some extra plans available in select zip codes).

In select areas, there is a service called GFiber Webpass. This is an internet service that’s installed in specific apartment buildings and other residential structures, but it isn’t common. You can read more about that in our full GFiber review.

5G mobile technology has unlocked a new level of wireless data speed. It’s what enables Verizon to give you home internet speeds of over 300Mbps download speed. We'll give Verizon props for its millimeter wave 5G, making it faster than T-Mobile's 5G Home Internet, but it will still never really be able to catch up to the good ol' fashioned wires.

GFiber’s internet service uses—you guessed it—fiber-optic technology! Fiber infrastructure not only allows Google to give you outrageously fast download speeds of 1,000Mbps, but it’s also more reliable than 5G and gets incredible upload speeds. Here’s a little comparison.

There’s really no contest when comparing Verizon and Google’s upload speeds. But what’s the big deal? Who really needs upload speeds anyway?

Essentially, upload speeds are important for any activity where your device needs to send a lot of information back to the network. Unlike streaming a movie, where most of the information is coming to you, activities like video conferencing, online gaming, and uploading files require a lot of bandwidth going the other way.

Tyler, our beloved colleague, told us this: “My download/upload speeds with Verizon 5G Home Internet were not as good as my GFiber speeds, so I ended up keeping GFiber. I still had solid download speeds with Verizon 5G (like 120ish download speeds, 30 upload speeds), but my GFiber is like 400Mbps and 100Mbps.”  It's not surprising—GFiber speed tests show it averages 266Mbps download speed and 183Mbps upload speed.

Verizon’s 5G Home Internet service is available in over 900 cities now. That’s a significant expansion from when it was launched just a few years ago, but it’s still relatively small compared to some other ISPs, like Comcast Xfinity.

You can see a decent map of Verizon’s availability on this map. The red dots are locations where the service is available.

On the other hand, GFiber is only available in 27 cities. There’s no need to give you a map when we can just list them out:

• Atlanta, Georgia
• Austin, Texas
• Carrboro, North Carolina
• Chapel Hill, North Carolina
• Charlotte, North Carolina
• Chicago, Illinois
• Denver, Colorado
• Des Moines and West Des Moines, Iowa
• Huntsville, Alabama
• Irvine, California
• Kansas City, Missouri
• Kansas City, Kansas
• Mesa, Arizona
• Miami, Florida
• Nashville, Tennessee
• North Salt Lake, Utah
• Oakland, California
• Huntington Beach, California
• Provo, Utah
• Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina
• Salt Lake City, Utah
• San Antonio, Texas
• San Diego, California
• Sandy, Utah
• San Francisco, California
• Seattle, Washington

Google has talked about expanding to other parts of Idaho, Nevada, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Colorado in the next year or two.

Verizon 5G Home Internet and GFiber have a lot of overlap in major cities, like San Francisco, San Diego, Salt Lake City, and Nashville. In those places, customers will have a hard choice to make. You may even consider trying out both (check for free trial runs with Verizon).

Internet service providers aren’t really known for their great customer service *cough* CenturyLink *cough*, but Google and Verizon actually do a decent job of picking up the phone.

Verizon 5G Home Internet isn’t actually listed in the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), which ranks telecommunications companies based on customer feedback. But both Verizon Wireless and Verizon’s other internet service, Fios, are listed. In both cases, the company is leading the pack with high scores.

GFiber is also not listed in the survey (it’s too small of a provider). However, Google did collaborate with the ACSI in 2020, and it claims that it ranked first in value, security, and other categories. Anecdotally, when I lived in Salt Lake City and used GFiber for about four years, I had no problems with customer service.

That’s it for our in-depth review. Now it’s up to you to decide. Here’s a quick recap to help you remember all of the brilliant things we wrote.

• Plans and prices: Verizon offers two high-speed plans that are very affordable, especially if you’re an existing Verizon Wireless customer. Google’s plans are significantly more expensive but also much faster.
• Speeds: Google’s fiber-optic network offers unbeatable download and upload speeds, making it ideal for big families, gamers, and remote workers. But Verizon’s 5G speeds will be fine for casual internet users.
• Availability: GFiber is still only available in about a dozen places, while Verizon 5G Home Internet has expanded to over 900 cities.
• Our Takeaway: Both ISPs are great, so it all boils down to price vs. performance. Verizon is cheaper, and Google is faster. Take your pick.

Still unsure about GFiber or Verizon 5G Home Internet? We can help you explore other services with our comparison reviews of GFiber vs. T-Mobile, GFiber vs. Optimum Internet, and Verizon 5G Home Internet vs. Optimum Internet.

If GFiber interests you, the next step is to see if your address is eligible.