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

Verizon’s 5G speeds are great, but they can’t catch up to the power of fiber optic. Comparing Verizon 5G Home Internet and Google Fiber’s plans is easy because both internet providers keep things simple. You can choose between two plans from Verizon and four from Google. Verizon offers a couple of great plans with steep discounts for existing customers, while Google’s superfast plans remain pricey.

Fast, stable, and reasonably priced, Google Fiber gets you sky-high symmetrical internet speeds. According to Reviews.org, it’s not only the best fiber provider, but it’s also the best internet provider. Plus, its standalone internet plans don’t come with frills and tricky promos (but you can often find some nice sign-on perks). The big downside to Google Fiber is that it’s only available in a handful of places. Here’s what you get:

• Gigabit and multi-gigabit speeds
• Free installation
• No annual contract
• No extra fee for modem

But if you don’t get Google Fiber, consider Verizon 5G Home Internet for its easy setup and affordable options. Though it uses relatively new fixed wireless technology that can cause speeds to fluctuate, Verizon still comes in as the second-fastest internet provider in the U.S. according to our speed test data (though we do factor in Verizon Fios as well). Here’s what you get with Verizon:

• Price-lock guarantee
• No annual contract
• Discounts with autopay
• $15 monthly discount when you connect a Verizon mobile line to a Verizon internet plan

Verizon’s has two 5G internet plans priced at $50 and $70, and both 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.

Google Fiber 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 Google Fiber 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 Google Fiber 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.

Google Fiber’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 Google Fiber speeds, so I ended up keeping Google Fiber. I still had solid download speeds with Verizon 5G (like 120ish download speeds, 30 upload speeds), but my Google Fiber is like 400Mbps and 100Mbps.”  It's not surprising—Google Fiber 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, Google Fiber 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 Google Fiber 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.

Google Fiber 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 Google Fiber 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: Google Fiber 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 Google Fiber or Verizon 5G Home Internet? We can help you explore other services with our comparison reviews of Google Fiber vs. T-Mobile, Google Fiber vs. Optimum Internet, and Verizon 5G Home Internet vs. Optimum Internet.

We began working on this comparison between Verizon 5G Home Internet and Google Fiber with a whole lot of research. We looked at every single plan that each service offers, we read independent analyses, we looked at customer reviews, and we even interviewed our co-worker who used both.

After the research phase, we put the data side-by-side to see which ISP offers better prices, perks, performance, availability, and customer service. We made our final recommendations based on the utility that we think the providers will give to different kinds of internet users.

Thank you for reading, and please let us know (using the Contact Us button below) if you have any questions or concerns.

If either Google Fiber or Verizon 5G Home Internet interests you, the next step is to see if your address is eligible.